The Rochester American Heart Association kicked off their 2019 Heart Walk & Run campaign with an Executive Breakfast at Oak Hill Country Club on November 16. Each year the breakfast is held to engage more interest in being part of a movement to help build a healthier Rochester community.
The keynote speaker was Dr. Tarun Bhalla, Neurosurgeon with UR Medicine, who brought attention to the issue of stroke, the number five killer nationwide, but the number three killer in the Rochester area. His talk provided education on what a stroke is and how to prevent it as well as details about the new Mobile Stroke Unit (MSU), only the 13th in the country. Dr. Bhalla said the mobile unit recently had set a record – treating a patient suffering a stroke with clot-busting drugs in only nine minutes after it arrived on the scene. While the MSU was supposed to be at the event, it had to leave for two stoke-related 911 calls during the breakfast hour.
Cressida Dixon, an Estate and Trust attorney at Bond, Schoeneck & King, shared her experience of having a stroke at age 38. Fully recovered, she credited her recovery to the research and science of the American Heart Association. Currently the American Heart Association funds $3.1 million in cardiovascular and stroke-related research in the Rochester community.
The 2019 Rochester Heart Walk & Run is scheduled for Saturday, April 6, 2019 at Frontier Field and will involve an estimated 8,000 walkers from Rochester companies, friends and family teams. The goal is to raise $800,000 to help fund research programs, education, awareness and advocacy programs in the Rochester community.
For more information about the 2019 Rochester Heart Walk & Run, visit www.RochesterHeartWalkRun.org or call Adam Cipolla, Corporate Relations Director at 797-9733.
