Last week, it was announced that The Heart & Stroke Foundation’s “Restart a Heart, Restart a Life™” program will receive 10 million dollars from the Harper Government to place life-saving automated external defibrillators (AEDs) in hockey arenas and community recreation centres across Canada. To view the official announcement please click here.
This program has also received substantial funding through The Cowan Foundation who is one of the two largest private partners of the Heart & Stroke Foundation of Canada, (the other being the Boston Pizza Foundation). The Cowan Foundation has donated $2 million dollars since 2007 towards the “Restart a Heart, Restart a Life™” program with the final instalment scheduled to be presented this year. This program has purchased, installed and provided associated training for AEDs that have been placed in communities across the country. It also focuses on increasing public awareness of the role of AEDs and encourages citizens to make a difference by learning CPR to equip them to respond to a sudden cardiac arrest emergency. Since the program launched over 4000AEDS have been distributed nation-wide and 50 lives have been saved in Ontario alone. Cowan Insurance Group and The Cowan Foundation also donated and additional $100,000 towards this program that was raised during the 2012 Cowan Charity Classic.
If you would like more information about AEDS and how to restart a heart, you can visit the Heart and Stroke website at http://www.heartandstroke.com/site/c.ikIQLcMWJtE/b.3483921/k.A6FB/Heart_disease__How_to_restart_a_heart.htm