On Wednesday June 6th, 29 Cimpl employees gathered in Pointe-Claire to ride the Big Bike together in support of the Heart and Stroke Foundation.
We are happy to announce that we raised an impressive $5,250 this year and that the weather was on our side! For the ninth time, we rode the 29-person bike as a group for 20 minutes, proudly sporting our company colors, and raising awareness on heart diseases.
The Big Bike event is designed to celebrate the riders’ involvement in a good cause by having fun with co-workers and getting everyone’s hearts pumping. Each team begins by setting a fundraising goal when signing up for the event, which will ultimately go to funding research to prevent heart diseases. Just last year, more than 70,000 people participated in Big Bike, raising over $8 million.
Our dedication to the Heart & Stroke Foundation
How did we get involved with Heart & Stroke? The reason actually goes beyond wanting to donate to a great cause: Ronald, one of our team members, suffered a complete aortic rupture in our office a few years ago when he was only 54 years old. The company as a whole was touched by the tragedy and it was important for us to honor our colleague’s memory by raising awareness and fighting back. Other Cimpl employees also experienced the consequences of a loved one being affected with a heart conditions, and many had their own reasons to ride. Heart diseases and strokes kill one person every seven minutes in Canada, but the research made possible by donations and volunteer work helps change that statistic.
The Heart & Stroke foundation has been hard at work for more than 60 years, saving the lives of so many people by continually raising awareness on the issue and investing in critical research. Did you know that the leading cause of premature deaths in women in Canada is heart disease and stroke? The foundation is dedicated to preventing deaths from heart disease and stroke by seeking to inform Canadians on the issue and, of course, by taking action.
Heart & Stroke’s action plan
- Getting governments to take children’s health more seriously by imposing nutrition plans
- Working on improving the health of Indigenous people
- Reducing the damages of high blood pressure
- Encouraging physical activity in children
- Advocating for a healthier food supply throughout the country
- Helping Canadians realize what puts them at risk and how they can manage those risks
- Promoting healthy eating
- Minimizing the appeal of tobacco through ad campaigns
- Funding research
Get more details on the foundation’s action plan here.
Adopting a healthier lifestyle
Can you believe that 8 in 10 cases of cardiovascular can be prevented simply by a healthy lifestyle? We should learn to eat well, be active, maintain a healthy body weight, not smoke and manage our stress better. Another essential element in the prevention of heart diseases and strokes is knowing the risk factors: people with irregular blood pressure, diabetes and atrial fibrillation, among others, should be more aware of the risks of their conditions and manage them accordingly, where the first step would be to consult a physician.
We shouldn’t wait for a tragedy to happen to get healthier. Visit the Heart & Stroke website to get more information or to donate.