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Brady Carballo-Hambleton: Senior Vice President, Ontario and Nunavut, Heart & Stroke

Heart & Stroke is a national, not for profit organization that exists to beat heart disease and stroke. And, since the 1950’s, we’ve invested in life-saving research, treatment, diagnosis, and care, and have been at the leading edge of breakthroughs that combat these diseases. We are one of Canada’s largest and most effective health charities. We have just over 300 staff working tirelessly day in and day out. And, we like to say that we’re the catalyst convenor, and that we are one of the most highly collaborative organizations. We don’t work alone. We work in collaboration with organizations, stakeholders, and like-minded organizations and  institutions to drive progress and change. Since our inception, we’ve invested over $1.7 billion dollars in research that drives breakthroughs and discoveries that have significantly improved the overall quality of life, the survivability and the outcomes for Canadians, coast to coast to coast.

Kathy Isaac, Client, Volunteer, Heart & Stroke

I am now almost 4 years post stroke, and so I’ve seen a lot of recovery and a lot of good stuff happen for me, but I still have some challenges, and one of the biggest challenges I face now is the invisible side of things where people look at me and think everything’s fine and everything’s okay. Asking for help was a big challenge early on. I had to learn to ask for help. But now, asking for help and not getting the help I need is incredibly frustrating and challenging. I don’t want to  explain myself to people all the time. I don’t want to tell people and continuously just have to talk about what happened to me and why I need support and help. I find that to be one of the most challenging things is to just kind of get people to accept the fact that I’m asking for help and I just need you to help me do something.

Heart & Stroke has made a huge difference in my life. Initially, in helping me get the resources that I needed to take the next step in my recovery journey. So when I initially had the stroke, I had three months out patient therapy. And when they dismissed me from that and graduated me, it was all congratulations and cheers, but I was in tears. I was like but i’m not done. I have so much more work to do. And at the hospital somebody handed me a Heart & Stroke flyer and kinda said check out these folks out and see what they can do. Things kind of took off from there. Heart & Stroke has been great at helping me get access to care, to resources and community groups to help me take the next step in my recovery journey.

Brady Carballo-Hambleton: Senior Vice President, Ontario and Nunavut, Heart & Stroke

Heart & Stroke has been associated with Federated Health Charities for several decades. In fact, we were the second national health charity to join, and we are proud to be one of 21 health charities that Federated Health Charities now supports.  Our partnership with Federated Health Charities is by far one of the most important in the province of Ontario. We benefit tremendously from employee giving through one-time donations, monthly donations, your annual lottery, as well as events. We’ve also benefitted greatly from the ability to share important public education and awareness campaigns with Federated Health Charity members, and that truly is a win-win partnership for us.

Kathy Isaac, Client, Volunteer, Heart & Stroke

If you’re thinking about contributing to Heart & Stroke and haven’t done it yet, first let me say that had the opportunity to work with a lot of people at Heart & Stroke and know quite a few people here. I truly believe that everyone at Heart & Stroke – the entire team – has a genuine desire to improve access to care and to resources for people who were affected by heart disease and stroke and their caregivers. This is a real organization doing really great work and there’s still a lot more work to do and this is where we get an opportunity to contribute, to help each other, to unify in reaching common goals. And so, if you’re still considering, still thinking about it this is a really great place to contribute. It will help you and your family and future generations going forward.

Brady Carballo-Hambleton: Senior Vice President, Ontario and Nunavut, Heart & Stroke

Ninety three percent (93%) of our work is funded by donor dollars. So, a massive amount of what we do on an annual basis relies heavily on contributions from donors. In 2024 alone, Heart & Stroke was able to fund over 1,000 research initiatives through individual grants, as well as a number of strategic projects focused on areas such as women’s heart and brain health, congenital heart disease, cardiac arrest and our new funding track of Black and Indigenous scholars.

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