Sometimes I tell my two daughters that life is unfair.
We all have burdens and blessings that come to us. I tell them that life does not provide a level playing field for everyone, but just as we have opportunities to improve our own lives, we also have opportunities to help improve the lives of others.
I found such an opportunity when I survived a heart attack at the age of 38.
As an adolescent and then a young woman, my sky-high cholesterol levels had been dismissed as "probably inherited." When I started to experience shortness of breath and tightness in my chest while hiking, my doctor seemed more concerned with my anxiety than with my physical symptoms. Somehow the idea of a seemingly healthy, fit young woman having heart disease just did not register as a possibility to the medical establishment.
If I had been diagnosed with familial hypercholesterolemia (FH), my doctors would have recognized my heart attack for what it was.
Early diagnosis and early treatment can give a person with FH the chance to live a full life. Without it, we have a 50% chance of having a heart attack by the time we are 50 years old. Depending upon the mutation we inherit and other risk factors, people with FH often suffer a heart attack in their 20s, 30s or 40s.
Heart disease still kills more people than any other condition, and FH is the most common genetic cause of heart disease. FH affects families of every race and ethnicity around the world. Each parent, sibling, and child of an FH family has a 50% chance having FH. Altogether, we are a family of over 30 million people.
Yet 90% of people with FH still don't have an accurate diagnosis.
That means they don't have the opportunity for prevention. Despite advances in scientific understanding of FH and despite the growing availability of clinical tools to successfully manage FH, people aren't getting help because they aren't getting the proper diagnoses.
This is why I started the FH Foundation in 2012: to address these gaps in care - and save lives.
Now, every month, 50,000 people from around the world come to the FH Foundation website for help. Our educational materials are translated into 11 languages, and more are in the works. We have created innovative programs to increase physician understanding of FH and contribute to science through our National FH Registry. We designated September 24 as FH Awareness Day, which is now recognized globally, to educate the general public and encourage them to seek diagnosis.
This year, we added the Race for FH to encourage heart-healthy activity and to raise funds to support the groundbreaking work of the Foundation. We set a goal of raising $50,000 by September 24 to support research, advocacy and education. If we make our goal in time, a generous FH family will donate an additional $25,000.
You can help us reach that goal! Please make your best gift today to help raise awareness and save lives. We can't do this work without you.
Thank you so much for your generous, caring heart.
