Family, Friends’ Support Help Cavuilati
ARheumatic Heart Disease( RHD) patient, Iowane Cavuilati, is living his life to the fullest after he recovered from the disease.
Yesterday, the 19-year-old told his story almost 10 years after he was diagnosed with the disease.
His story coincided with World Heart Day campaign observed at the Colonial War Memorial (CWM) Auditorium yesterday.
At a young age Mr Cavuilati was battling for his life while trying to keep up with school work. Eventually his studies were affected because he was in hospital for several months.
But it took strong encouragement from his family and friends which led him to take his diagnosis in stride.
“Going back to school and catching up with my studies was hard,” he said.
“However, I took it as a challenge and it helped me to be positive and become a better person.
“I joined a dancing group after my recovery and doing normal things such as going to the gym and living my life to the fullest.”
Mr Cavuilati is currently pursuing his studies at the University of the South Pacific.
Permanent Secretary, Ministry for Health and Medical Services, Dr James Fong said: “There has been a total of 56 million deaths recorded in 2016, worldwide and 71 per cent were non-communicable diseases from which 44 per cent were cardiovascular disease alone.
“Our job is to find out the risk at an early stage and treat it, so they don’t end their life prematurely and can live a long life.
“We need to try and look at the means by which our young people can invest early in living a healthy life.”