Marathon effort meets fundraising milestone
Nigel Smith's marathon efforts have helped the Heart Foundation top the $200,000 mark in online fundraising designed to help fight New Zealand's biggest killer - cardiovascular disease.
The Star City 2 Surf runner and Jennian Homes Franchise owner has raised an impressive $3045 since February - simply by asking friends, family and colleagues to sponsor him through his Heart Foundation 'Heart Racers' webpage. Heart Racers raise money via an online webpage by competing in an official event such as The Star Surf 2 City.
Supporters who sponsor Heart Racers like Nigel help the Foundation continue its nationwide work advancing cardiac care, funding heart research and promoting healthy lifestyles. Hundreds of Heart Racers from all walks of life have helped reach the incredible fundraising milestone.
Nigel himself signed up as a Heart Racer shortly after deciding 2009 was the year to take charge of his heart health. "I enjoy my work but I sit in the office most days, never exercising enough," he says. "I decided to set a few goals this year, one of them being to take part in The Star City 2 Surf event... and not the 6km event, but to push out for the full 12km! "My training is going well and I feel very privileged to be running for such a great cause, especially when I know that the money raised will be put to such good use." Nigel says the event also aligns well with Jennian Homes' support of the Heart Foundation's Go Red for Women heart disease awareness campaign, and building healthy homes for New Zealanders.
"At Jennian we say home is where the heart is, and I have been working with other franchises throughout the country to bring the message to everyday New Zealanders." "Heart Racers is a fantastic campaign that I am really proud to be supporting as part of our drive towards community wellbeing. "I hope my support of the campaign will assist the Heart Foundation in raising awareness of the threat of cardiovascular disease for New Zealanders and as a result, will save lives," says Nigel.
Heart Foundation spokesperson Elissa Downey says cardiovascular disease (heart, stroke and blood vessel disease) remains New Zealand's biggest killer. "Cardiovascular disease causes 40% of all deaths annually in our country - making it more prevalent than all forms of cancer," says Miss Downey.
"What's worse is that the nature of who is affected by it is changing. New research shows that young adults in their 20s and 30s are increasingly being admitted to hospital for heart attacks, and that this age group is dying at a faster rate than people of the same age in previous generations. "Much of this is due to unhealthy lifestyles - poor eating habits, lack of physical activity and being a smoker.
"But the good news is that many risk factors for cardiovascular disease are preventable, if people make healthy lifestyle choices. "We work at community level throughout New Zealand to assist people with this. In fact, we do a lot of work in Christchurch but could not have the kind of impact we do without this level of community support.
"Nigel is a fantastic example of how we can all take charge of our health - and join together in the race to beat heart disease," she says.
