News Release
January 31, 2007
Contact: Trina Becksted
480-419.1799
Sister to Sister Launches Heart Day Awareness Campaign
Heart Disease, the Leading Killer of American Women, Is Largely Preventable
(Phoenix, AZ) – Fifteen minutes can save a woman’s life from her No. 1 health threat -- heart disease. Only 13% of women consider heart disease to be their greatest personal health risk, yet it kills more women than the next six causes of death combined.
This February, Phoenix Sister to Sister will hold National Woman’s Heart Day® Health Fair. The Committee will encourage Phoenix Metropolitan area women to take 15 critical minutes to get screened on Friday, February 16, 2007, to learn about their heart disease risk factors and how to reduce them. Phoenix Sister to Sister is the first of 16 chapters nationwide to participate in this campaign.
The Committee is represented by well known valley residents such as Maureen Barkley, Cindy McCain and Debbie Gaby and will include health screenings before and after the event for attendees. “We want to practice what we preach,” says Mrs. Barkley.
The free heart health screenings with on-the-spot results and advice on adopting heart-healthy lifestyles are available at the National Woman’s Heart Day® Health Fair at Biltmore Fashion Park from 7:30 A.M. to 2:30 P.M. The annual event is organized by Sister to Sister: Everyone Has a Heart Foundation, Inc. and sponsored by Arizona Woman, Village Health Clubs, Banner Health, and At One Yoga.
“The bad news is that heart disease kills one out of three American women,” said Sister to Sister Community Council Member Bobi Seredich Rusing who heads this committee. “The good news is that women can lower their risk of heart disease by up to 82% by eating smarter, exercising and not smoking. Providing heart health screenings so that women can learn about their personal risk factors and how to reduce them is a key step in prevention and treatment.”
Irene Pollin, Sister to Sister’s founder added, “Women do so much for their families and friends. It’s time they take care of their own hearts. Getting a heart screening may be the best 15 minutes they ever spent!”
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Women can learn about their cholesterol, blood pressure, glucose and triglyceride levels and body mass index from the 15-minute screenings. Results are provided right there and then, and include an overall risk assessment and personalized counseling. Women also may participate in fitness and cooking demonstrations, learn from nationally known experts on diabetes, nutrition, obesity, fitness, smoking cessation and stress management, and even get a free massage. Prizes and giveaways are offered as well.
In 2006, at the Sister to Sister health fairs throughout the United States, more than 40% of the 10,602 women screened found out that they had two or more risk factors for heart disease. A significant number of them had been unaware of this before the screening.
The heart health fairs occur annually across the nation on the third Friday in February, officially declared as National Woman’s Heart Day® by the federal government. In 2007, the Sister to Sister: Everyone Has a Heart Foundation is sponsoring heart-health screening fairs in 16 cities: Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas, Detroit, Indianapolis, Jacksonville, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Philadelphia, Phoenix, St. Louis and Washington, D.C.
Major sponsor of the health fairs is sanofi aventis. National sponsors are Allstate, Sleep America, Quaker and Tropicana. National media partners include America Online, Discovery Health Channel and Woman’s Day. Government partners include the Office on Women’s Health in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the Office of Research on Women’s Health in the National Institutes of Health, the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute in NIH, and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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Sister to Sister is a 501(c)(3) foundation that is dedicated solely to bringing free heart disease screenings and “heart-healthy” information and support to women to prevent heart disease. For more information, please visit www.womansheartday.org.
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