Heart disease can affect anyone - even you or someone you love.

Matt never expected to need a pacemaker in his forties. Christina never expected to lose her husband. Paddy never expected his mum, Sarah, to have a heart attack. They all thought heart disease was something that affected ‘someone else’.

From a young age, Dr Janice Chew-Harris watched as her family members struggled with hypertension.

 “Like many people in New Zealand, I have a personal connection to the cause. For as long as I remember, my dad used to take blood pressure medication. Almost his entire side of the family did as well. I never knew what those pills meant until my uncle died one day from a heart attack – he was only 48.

It was heartbreaking for my family, and that’s what led me towards a career in heart research.”

Big-hearted donations from people like you enable Dr Janice Chew-Harris to research blood markers and their potential to predict heart disease risk in and improve outcomes for New Zealanders.

Please donate today to help us continue to fund life-saving heart research. You will be helping to prevent all kinds of Kiwis from losing their loved ones, too soon, to heart disease.

Thank you to Matt, Christina, Aliesha, Paddy, Sarah, Dr Janice Chew-Harries, Lesly and Monique for sharing their stories of how heart disease has affected them. (Pictured above, from left to right)