AN ENNIS man is appealing to the public to help raise vital funds for the Irish Heart Foundation on Happy Hearts Day.
Held on May 11 this year, Happy Hearts Day aims to raise funds to provide CPR training and they are hoping to raise €300,000.
Kieran O’Loughlin’s father Patrick passed away suddenly after suffering a heart attack nearly three years ago.
“Dad was 64. These days it’s not that old. My dad Paddy was an amazing man and did so much for me and my brother and sister. It was just quite sudden, it was completely out of the blue.
“There was no real warning signs so it can be like that. Often people get sudden heart attacks and there’s no signs when it happens,” Kieran said.
About 5000 people in Ireland die from sudden cardiac arrest each year, which translates to 13 lives lost every day.
The Irish Heart Foundation has trained 80,000 people in CPR over the last year.
CPR can triple a person’s chances of surviving a cardiac arrest.
Kieran wants people to get behind the campaign by purchasing a Happy Hearts pin on the day, or donating to one of the bucket collections.
He plans to learn CPR so he can offer help to someone should they need it.
“I don’t know if happy hearts day gets enough for the work they do and the amount of people that are affected in the country by heart failure or heart related diseases,” Kieran added
Check out irishheart.ie/campaigns/happy-heart-2018/ for more information, or to get involved with the campaign.
