February is Heart Month, the time when the Heart & Stroke Foundation is most active in communities across Canada to raise awareness and raise funds for the cause. This Heart Month, Heart & Stroke is focused on women because women’s heart and brain health is still vastly misunderstood.
Heart disease and stroke are the leading cause of premature death for women in Canada, and most women don’t even know it, wrongly presuming other diseases are more dangerous. In fact, women are six times more likely to die from heart disease and stroke than breast cancer, and every 17 minutes a woman in Canada dies from heart disease or stroke.
That’s 32,000 women that die from these diseases in Canada each year.
That's 32,000 too many.
The evidence is clear: when it comes to heart disease and strokes, women are under-researched, under-diagnosed and treated, under-supported and under-aware of their risks. All these ‘unders’ are causing women to die unnecessarily. These are just a few of the startling facts that everyone needs to know about:
It’s time to close the research gap and stop women dying unnecessarily. Not researching the difference between a man’s and a woman’s heart and brain is proving fatal for women. Heart & Stroke has committed to the following three undertakings:
Together we can fund life-saving research for the women we love. To support Heart & Stroke this Heart Month, go to CloseTheResearchGap.ca to donate and your dollars will be matched.
It’s time to better understand women’s hearts and brains.
It’s time to make sure women’s symptoms are investigated and their risks evaluated equitably.
It’s time to make sure healthcare professionals are equipped with new knowledge and tools.
It’s time for us all to recognize – and challenge – whenever bias occurs.
It’s #TimeToSeeRed
To have your donation matched, give to the Heart & Stroke Foundation during the month of February to have your generosity go even further.