When you run the BMO Vancouver Marathon, you’re doing more than chasing a finish line. You’re helping save lives. Every step you take fuels research breakthroughs. For more than 70 years, Heart & Stroke has been leading the fight to beat heart disease and stroke. We invest in Canada’s brightest researchers to fuel the discoveries that will transform the lives of people touched by these conditions – or prevent them from happening in the first place.
When you run the BMO Vancouver Marathon, you’re doing more than chasing a finish line. You’re helping save lives. Every step you take fuels research breakthroughs. For more than 70 years, Heart & Stroke has been leading the fight to beat heart disease and stroke. We invest in Canada’s brightest researchers to fuel the discoveries that will transform the lives of people touched by these conditions – or prevent them from happening in the first place.
Since our inception, we have invested $1.73 billion into breakthrough research, making us the largest funder of cardiovascular research in Canada after the federal government. Research has enabled significant strides in improving diagnosis, treatment and care for heart disease and stroke. In the past seven decades, the death rate from these conditions has declined by more than 75%.Since our inception, we have invested $1.73 billion into breakthrough research, making us the largest funder of cardiovascular research in Canada after the federal government. Research has enabled significant strides in improving diagnosis, treatment and care for heart disease and stroke. In the past seven decades, the death rate from these conditions has declined by more than 75%.Some of the incredible lifesaving advances that were made possible thanks to our donors’ support include:
- The first successful open-heart surgery in 1954, using a technique developed through a Heart & Stroke research grant.
- In 1964, the discovery of a surgical technique to treat blue baby syndrome: a previously fatal heart defect.
- The first Canadian heart transplant surgery, performed in 1968.A new surgery technique to treat irregular heartbeats (discovered in 1987) and in 2014, a better way to detect atrial fibrillation (afib). In 2000, ACE inhibitor medications were discovered to significantly reduce the risk of heart attacks and strokes.
- In 2015, the ESCAPE trial showed that endovascular therapy (EVT) could be used to cut the stroke death rate in half.
Help us fund the next breakthroughs
Heart disease and stroke leave an unignorable and often devastating impact on the lives of millions of Canadians, disrupting families, futures and communities. For half of people in this country, it’s not a matter of “if” but “when” they or someone close to them is impacted, with these conditions taking a life every five minutes. And as our population ages and more young people are being diagnosed with heart disease and stroke, the need for innovation grows more urgent. But we can’t do this work alone.
Join us in the fight to beat heart disease and stroke. Your support will fuel cutting-edge research on the cusp of the next exciting breakthrough.
Join us and run for heart. Run for hope. Run for the future.