These very special group shots were sent to us by Dana, whose daughter Olive was born with a congenital heart defect (CHD) of May 2009 and since then has had two open heart surgeries to repair the defect. Olive’s family created these designs for a walk to raise money for It’s My Heart (www.itsmyheart.org), to spread awareness for CHDs, and of course to show support for Olive and the other 40,000 babies born each year with CHDs.
Dana also included some enlightening facts about Congenital Heart Defects, that we wanted to share with our readers in spirit of spreading awareness for CHDs.
About 1 out of every 100 babies are born each year with some type of Congenital Heart Defect (40,000/year) (Source: Children’s Heart Foundation). Nearly twice as many children die from Congenital Heart Defects in the United States each year as from all forms of childhood cancers combined, yet funding for pediatric cancer research is five times higher than funding for CHD (Source: Children’s Heart Foundation). Congenital Heart Defects are the #1 birth defect (Source: March of Dimes). Congenital Heart Defects are the #1 cause of birth defect related deaths. (Source: March of Dimes)
Thank you for sharing your story with us Dana and Olive! We wish you nothing but the best!