Heart disease is Australia’s leading cause of death.
Each year, Heart Research Australia (HRA), an organisation created by a group of Royal North Shore cardiologists in 1986, calls the nation to focus their attention on the heart and help bring funds to vital life-saving research.
During REDFEB, individuals wear red, fundraise, donate, and start a conversation on the importance of healthy hearts.
To date, Heart Research Australia have raised over $36 million. In the 2024 financial year, the organisation was able to facilitate 20 research projects, PhD grants, and fund equipment.
Hornsby Heights local Chris had a startling encounter with his own heart health in May 2004. While on a friend’s boat in Pittwater, Chris briefly capsized when in a small dinghy, submerging into the cold waters. The effort to haul himself out, combined with the shock of the temperature, caused plaques to block his right coronary artery. This resulted in a heart attack.
‘I’d never had any issue, and we had a company policy which said that I had a stress test every year,’ explains Chris. ‘I was only 52.’
A new research trial known as ETAMI, Early Triage of Acute Myocardial Infarction, funded by HRA, allowed the ambulance to make direct contact with the team at Royal North Shore Hospital and diagnose Chris. Prior to this, patients would be sent to a local hospital, and only once diagnosed there be transferred to a main hospital.
As a biologist, Chris speaks to how interested he was in the process of watching the team break apart the blockage with a balloon, then put in a stent.
‘Using the catheter to actually break up the heart attack, that was relatively new too, then,’ says Chris. ‘Three days later I went home, and I’ve never had any issue since. Just one blockage, one artery.’
Now, Chris is an ambassador for HRA, speaking at conferences, being involved with workshops, and interviewing doctors as a sort of “dumb patient” to cut through medical jargon and help deliver vital information to the public.
‘What I’ve been forever grateful about is the things that I’ve done since the heart attack, including meeting my grandchildren, meeting my future daughters-in-law,’ says Chris.
‘It’s something you can never repay… I hope we’ll get to the day when people will be able to be much more a master of their own destiny… predicting when they’re going to be vulnerable, and how to stop it in advance.’
For more information about REDFEB, Heart Research Australia, and how to participate, visit www.heartresearch.com.au
