Tufts Health Plan Makes Five-Year, $50,000 Commitment to Support the American Heart Association
For the fifth year in a row, Tufts Health Plan will present a $10,000 cash grant to the American Heart Association.
The Tufts Health Plan 10K for Women annually inspires thousands of women to embark on fitness plans that include healthy diets, cardiovascular training, and daily exercise. The American Heart Association routinely promotes these same activities as a way for women to reduce their risks of cardiovascular diseases and stroke. To further its commitment to health and join the fight against heart disease and stroke, Tufts Health Plan has made a multi-year, $50,000 commitment to support the American Heart Association.
On race day, Tufts Health Plan will present the 2010 $10,000 cash grant to the American Heart Association at the Boston Common. Founded in 1924, the American Heart Association is the nation's oldest and largest voluntary health organization dedicated to building healthier lives, free of cardiovascular diseases and stroke. The American Heart Association has set a bold 2020 impact goal to improve the cardiovascular health of all Americans by 20 percent while reducing deaths from cardiovascular disease and stroke by 20 percent. To help prevent, treat and defeat these disease – America’s No. 1 and No. 3 killers – the American Heart Association funds cutting-edge research, conducts lifesaving public and professional educational programs, and advocates to protect public health.
Go Red For Women is part of the American Heart Association’s solution to help save women’s lives. Too few people realize that heart disease is the No. 1 killer of American women age 20 and over. About 460,000 women die of cardiovascular disease annually, more than the next five causes of death combined, including all forms of cancer. But the good news is that heart disease is often preventable. Go Red For Women empowers women with knowledge and tools so they can take positive action to reduce their risks of heart disease and stroke and protect their health. Spreading the Go Red For Women message - Our Hearts. Our Choice. - raises awareness of heart disease and empowers women to reduce their risk by learning the steps to prevent it. Choose to take control of your heart health and join the movement today at www.GoRedForWomen.org.
Donate now and help save lives! Learn ways you can give to The American Heart Association. Your contributions help provide the education and resources needed to significantly reduce the number of deaths caused by cardiovascular disease and stroke.
Please consider giving to an organization of your choice. If you represent a charity that you would like to offer for consideration on this page, you may contact us.
Joan Benoit Samuelson, three-time winner of the Tufts Health Plan 10K for Women and Olympic gold medalist, (left)
Jim Roosevelt, President and CEO, Tufts Health Plan (second from left)
JESSICA PELLAND, stroke survivor and three-time marathon finisher (second from right)
Jessica was going to become a professional dancer; she danced five to six days per week at a studio near her house in New Jersey. Then in 1990 when she was 12 years old, while vacationing in a remote part of Canada with her family, she suffered a stroke. Immediately after the stroke, she had could not talk due to expressive aphasia and could not walk. The change was instantaneous.
Her family drove three hours to the nearest hospital where an emergency room doctor diagnosed her as “drunk”. Needless to say her parents wanted a second opinion. The second doctor suggested that her parents had been feeding her psychedelic mushrooms. In all honesty, who would have suspected that a 12 year old had a stroke? They drove 10 hours to Bangor, Maine where she was given the first of many MRIs which confirmed the stroke. While undergoing more tests, she suffered a second stroke. Once she was stable, the family drove back to New Jersey where Jessica remained in a hospital near her house for the rest of the summer.
Because her two strokes occurred in the left hemisphere of her brain, the right half of Jessica’s body is spastic. When the permanence of the after-effects of having a stroke sets in, so does the frustration and depression. Depression stems from years of frustration of trying to achieve what you knew you once could. The change was sudden – literally “over night.”
Jessica received the American Stroke Association’s Train To End Stroke (TTES) flier in January 2004, but at that time was so depressed that she threw away the flier. She received the next flier in January 2005, and said “what if…” Jessica underwent training through the TTES program and completed the Vermont marathon. She ran three marathons with the TTES program, and this will be her fourth Tufts10K. She has no intention of stopping!
Dr. Malissa Wood, Cardiologist at Massachusetts General Hospital and American Heart Association Board Member (right)
Dr. Wood currently serves as the Co-Director of the MGH Heart Center Women's Health Program. Dr. Wood is actively involved in teaching both on the local and national levels and serves as a mentor for female trainees in cardiovascular medicine for the American College of Cardiology. She is a member of the Board of Directors of the American Society of Echocardiography and is on the writing committee for the American Board of Echocardiography Certification exam. She also serves on the American Heart Association's Greater Boston Board of Directors and the Boston Go Red Executive Leadership committee. She has been a spokesperson for the AHA on many issues, but speaks as an expert on the issue of women and heart disease.