Stories

Exceptional volunteer, Lynne Hawkins, is once again generously contributing her time and energy to the Big Heart Appeal street collection on Friday 23 February and Saturday 24 February 2024 in Hokitika. Her commitment to the cause is rooted in her personal connection to heart disease.

Wellingtonian Jeff McEwan, photographer, father and husband, is living life to its fullest, though just four years ago he was on the operating table receiving life-saving surgery for blockages in his arteries. Now he is volunteering for the Heart Foundation and serving as a beacon of hope for heart health.

Every February for the past twelve years, Jean McLarnon has been at the forefront of the Heart Foundation's Big Heart Appeal street collection in Tauranga, serving as a volunteer area coordinator. Her motivation stems from a family connection with heart disease, but it's also down to her passion for making a difference in her community.

Every year, volunteers like Amy Young come together to support the Heart Foundation's Big Heart Appeal street collection in February. But for Amy, this heartfelt mission goes beyond a yearly tradition as she takes on the role of an area coordinator for the first time in Cromwell.

A 10-year follow-up study on the heart health of Pacific people in Canterbury will generate valuable insights into how risk factors change over time and identify strategies for preventing and managing heart disease.

Cardiothoracic surgeon and researcher Mr Nishith Patel has been awarded the 2023 Foundation100 Fellowship from the Heart Foundation. During the tenure of the fellowship, Nishith plans to better understand a life-threatening condition known as aortic dissection, which is believed to be more common in New Zealand compared to other countries.

Around 1,700 New Zealanders die from out-of-hospital cardiac arrest each year. Early defibrillation, a shock delivered to the heart, has been shown to improve survival. The FIRST trial investigates whether a new portable defibrillator accessible to community responders can improve survival.

The progress made with heart disease over the past 50 years in New Zealand appears to be coming to an end, as the decline in heart disease plateaus for the first time in decades. Three researchers have been awarded funding by the Heart Foundation to investigate the impact of food on heart health and will dig deeper into the impact of different types of foods and diets and what can be done to reverse this unfavourable trend.

Heart Foundation funding for a new tissue culture system will allow researchers to study beating human heart samples in the laboratory. The system will be used to investigate the underlying mechanisms of heart disease and safely test the effects of drugs on the human heart.

Heart Foundation-funded research is investigating the role of oxytocin in leading to chronic heart failure after a heart attack and also studying the potential of an oxytocin blocker to prevent heart damage.

New Zealand cardiologists are once again heading overseas to gain experience and skills at world-leading international hospitals, with the support of the Heart Foundation. Closed borders over the past few years interrupted travel but these training positions are now being keenly sought after again.

New research is investigating if some antidepressants affect blood cholesterol and blood clotting, which could inform treatments for people with both depression and heart disease.