My Story

In a heartbeat, you could be the difference.

I know that better than most.  My father passed away from a massive heart event - the kind that comes without warning, that takes someone from you before you even have time to be afraid.  And more recently, my mother survived not one, but two strokes.  I've sat alongside my mother in hospitals and appointments not knowing how or how much she would recover.  I've felt the particular kind of helplessness that comes from loving someone whose heart or brain has turned against them, and knowing there's nothing you can do but wait and hope.  

That's why I'm walking. 

9 out of 10 people who suffer cardiac arrest outside the hospital don't survive - most often simply because no one nearby knew how to perform CPR.  I think about that number differently now.  I think about all the people who never got the chance my mother did, and I think about how much I wish someone could have given my father that chance too.  

I'm raising money because I refuse to let what happened to my family be the end of the story.  Every dollar funds lifesaving research, trains more people in CPR, and puts us one step closer to a world where fewer families have to know this particular grief.  My father's heartbeat mattered.  My mother's fight matters.  Yours does too.  

Please help me reach my goal today.  In his memory, and for her strength - extraordinary starts with you.