Many of you know, when I was 4 years old, I had open heart surgery to repair an atrial septum defect. Before the open heart surgery, they tested a new cathedar device on me called an Amplatzer. Once they got inside of my heart with the scope, they unfortunately determined my hole was too large for that type of repair in testing. 25 years later, I have done my research and found out that cathedar device repairs on the type of defect I had, have almost identical success rates as open heart surgeries - with half of the risk! And that is thanks to YOU and your support of the AHA all of these years.
After my surgery, we were invited to the 1999 Lowcountry Heart Walk and we've never looked back. Over the last 25 years, I've raised close to $100,000 for the AHA and I'm not stopping yet! Every day I come to work at this organziation, I learn more and more how valuable our work is and the lives that have been changed by it. Now, I am the Executive Director for the American Heart Association of the Midlands and work with wonderful families, volunteers, and people who motivate me every day.
I continue to walk every year for my Uncle Johnny, my Granny, my Poppy, all of the beautiful mended hearts I've met along the way, and with every heart beat I am thankful for the work of the AHA.
Thank you always for your generous support of my fundraising efforts. My Grammy sent me a wonderful letter written by my parents and included in our cookbooks we "sold" in 2004, and it says, "Lizzie takes a lot of pride in raising money for the AHA. She knows that her efforts today will benefit 'someone' tomorrow!" And that statement become more true every day!