Every year, the community gathers at SUNY Broome to fight heart disease and stroke in the American Heart Association’s Heart Walk. This year’s walk will be on April 9; click here for details.
So, why do you walk? Professor Erin O’Hara-Leslie shares her story:
It was right before Christmas. The fire truck with Santa on it had just come to the door and passed out candy canes, holiday music was blaring, and my boys and I were having a blast making cookies……when the phone rang. I saw it was my dad on caller ID and thought he wanted to talk about our plans for Christmas Eve. It wasn’t. It was a family friend who was in law enforcement calling from my father’s house to tell me that they thought my dad had had a heart attack and that it didn’t look good. I could hear the paramedics working on him in the background and I also heard when they stopped. It was too late. The memories of that night still bring me to tears. I’ve been part of the AHA Heart Walk for 4 years. I walk for my dad, I walk for my boys, and I walk because I believe in this cause.
Why do you walk? Send your stories to micalejr@sunybroome.edu. And don’t forget to sign up for or donate to the Heart Walk, and imagine a world without heart disease or stroke.
Sign up for the Heart Walk at our table from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. March 30 in the Student Center!
