To sign up for the Red Dress Run and help fight heart disease, go to www.nichs.org.uk/RedDressRun. Readers who enter the promotional code RED2019 will be given a discount off the entrance price.
HEART attack survivor Roisin O’Neill is lending her support to Northern Ireland Chest Heart and Stroke’s Red Dress Run which is taking place on September 29 (World Heart Day) at Stormont Estate.
Hundreds are expected to dress up in red and “wear their heart on their sleeve” at this year’s event, supported by MACE.
Participants are invited to run or walk 5k or 10k in memory of someone they’ve lost to heart disease, or to support someone who is living with a heart condition or simply to support the charity.
Primary teacher Roisin suffered a heart attack at 47.
“It was lunch time at the school,” she recalled.
“Suddenly, I felt this extreme pain right across my chest. At first my colleagues just thought I was feeling a bit faint but I knew it was something more serious.”
Roisin was taken to the Lagan Valley and then immediately on to the RVH where she was diagnosed with Spontaneous Coronary Artery Dissection (SCAD), an uncommon emergency condition that occurs when a tear forms in one of the blood vessels in the heart.
Roisin’s is not an isolated case; there are 74,000 people living with heart disease and every day in Northern Ireland 17 people will have a heart attack and four people die of heart disease. Many people think of heart disease as a “man’s illness” but it kills more women than breast cancer here, and one third of heart attacks happen to women.
“I’m excited to hear that NI Chest Heart and Stroke plans to investigate gender specific rehab as part of its new cardiac service provision. I can think of no better way to spend World Heart Day than helping to raise money for this great local charity.”