More than $125,000 was raised and nearly 300 people attended the American Heart Association’s Go Red for Women luncheon at the Desmond Hotel and Conference Center in Colonie on Thursday, May 28.
At the event, people had their cholesterol checked, learned how to prepare heart-healthy meals, heard victim impact stories and also learned more about heart disease, the No. 1 killer of women in America. WNYT News Channel 13 anchorwoman Benita Zahn was master of ceremonies.
I am very proud to be here, said Zahn, encouraging the crowd to enjoy their lunch and pay close attention to what the researchers and victims had to say about heart disease.
As attendees ate their dessert, they watched a video about Dawn Manogue and her 8-year-old daughter, Lily Toomey, both of them suffer from heart conditions.
`I just did not feel right,` Manogue said, after telling the crowd that her troubles began after she gave birth to her daughter, and that her doctors were constantly telling her she just had `new mommy anxiety.`
Later, it was discovered that she had two blood clots in her lung, and she was diagnosed with peripartum cardiomyopathy.
Soon after her daughter was born, it was discovered that Toomey too was having heart troubles.
`[The doctors] heard a murmur in her heart,` Manogue said, which lead to her having open heart surgery ` one of the scariest days of Manogue’s life, she said.
Now, both Manogue and her daughter are doing well, and Manogue told the audience that she’s, `glad I’ve had the opportunity to live to see my daughter grow.`
She also urged the crowd to know their bodies and be proactive if they feel that something is wrong.
`Listen to your intuition and talk to your doctors if you think there’s something wrong with your heart,` she said.
Toomey also encouraged the crowd to be heart-conscious.
`I am very happy that you all can open your hearts and be here,` Toomey read from a statement she prepared for the event. `Always keep taking care of your heart.`
Also at the luncheon, Dr. Michelle R. Lennartz, professor at the Center for Cell Biology and Cancer Research at Albany Medical Center, spoke to the crowd about research she is working on to better predict a heart attack or stroke before it happens.
`The hope would be that we could eventually develop a blood test that would help the physician predict a heart attack or stroke before it happened,` Lennartz said after the luncheon Monday, June 1. `What we’re interested in is understanding the differences between stable and unstable plaques that would rupture and cause heart attacks and strokes.`
Lennartz said the research is being done through work at Albany Medical Center, where researches are examining tissues, looking for the specific proteins that are found in both stable and unstable plaques. The tissues being studied are taken from arteries that lead up to the brain, she said.
Lennartz said she thinks it is important to note to the people who attended the luncheon, as well as other taxpayers, that funding for this, and other research is obtained through federal tax dollars.
`I think that’s important to say, that our tax dollars go to things other than bailing out AIG,` she said.
Lennartz also thinks its important to mention that the efforts on research projects such as this one are collaborative between physicians and scientists, allowing the research to cover all angles and examine all possibilities.
The event was sponsored by Spotlight Newspapers, WNYT News Channel 13, B95.5, the Times Union and Capital Region Living.
For more information about heart disease, visit www.GoRedForWomen.org.
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