Twenty years. That is how much life can be taken from our neighbors in Chicago simply because of where they live and the inequities they face; and heart disease is one of the biggest reasons why. The rest of the country face similar statistics.           

In 2025, Chicago still had a 20-year life expectancy gap between Black and non-Black residents. Chronic disease - mostly accounted for by cardiovascular disease - explains about half (almost 50%) of that gap. Nationally, cardiovascular disease remains the leading cause of death, taking more than 900,000 lives each year — about 1 in every 3 deaths.

This is why I am walking with the American Heart Association. The AHA is not just raising awareness — it is funding lifesaving cardiovascular research, expanding CPR education, supporting blood pressure control, advancing prevention, and working to improve health equity in communities that have been left behind.

Your donation is more than a gift. It is an investment in prevention, research, education, and longer lives. It helps us fight the disease that continues to take too many parents, grandparents, siblings, friends, and neighbors too soon.

Please consider supporting my Heart Walk. Together, we can help close the life expectancy gap — one heart, one family, and one community at a time.  

Thank you for considering a contribution and for continuing to stand with this mission—one step, one dollar, one heartbeat at a time.

Thank you, from the bottom of my heart. 

Tochi