Why I Walk: 

My special why was a teenager I met through his mother, who watched her son go into cardiac arrest while playing high school basketball.  His grandmother performed CPR, they could not find an AED, and had to drive to a nearby college to retrieve one.  His life was saved by his grandmother and the much needed AED. I joined a fundraiser for a fun-filled basketball day, mixed in with education, that raised enough money to put an AED in that high school. To see them learn and the smiles on their faces when they leave with hope that they can make a difference was so fullfilling.

I have seen the outcomes of young and old people who suffer cardiac arrest outside the hospital. 90% of those do not survive due to not receiving bystander CPR. I have been personally joined fundrasing events and have personally gone out to  teach community members, churches, families, teachers, coaches, children, and adults how to perform bystander CPR to include hands-only CPR and AED utilization. 

 

My husband's store owner also had a devastating stroke while my husband was at work one day.  When I arrived in the ER, I was staring at a man who who was completely unresponsive, with one entire half of his body flacid. I also watched him get the medications he needed in a timely manner, all because his wife recognized his stroke signs/symptoms and had him taken immediately to the nearest hospital.  After his thrombolytics worked, he had full recover with no residual from this stroke, and has gone onto to live his life with the ability to do everything he could before the stroke.  He is my why for stroke

 

Everyone has someone whose life can be forever changed by the funds raised at the AHA Heart & Stroke Walk 2025.

 

Please join me in my efforts to help make that difference!

 

Sonya