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Why donate to Cardiac Athletes ?

Once patients of serious and life threatening heart conditions have made a steady recovery and hopefully been through a cardiac rehabilitation programme they are pretty much left on their own.  Many of these people live too far away from any formal post cardiac exercise programme and too far from someone with a similar heart condition to themselves.  Therefore this website is essential for bringing these people together, across continents even, so that they can share their knowledge on how to heal their hearts, how to exercise safely and effectively and to uplift and motivate each other.  Cardiac Athletes is not in ‘ competition ‘ with any other cardiac related website … after all we are in it for the same reasons … to help those with heart conditions achieve fitter, healthier and happier lives.

Where does the money go ?

Money that is donated goes to three main areas:

1. Website hosting and development costs
2. Forum License and development costs
3. The Cardiac Athletes Charitable Fund ( currently being formed )

The Cardiac Athletes Charitable Fund ( currently being formed )

As part of the sites ethical stance, any excess money which has been donated is pooled into the Cardiac Athletes Charitable Fund.  The members of the Forum are then invited to recommend good causes and a vote will be taken on which of these good causes to donate to.  The first of these suggested is to help buy AED’s ( Automated External Defibrillator ) for sports centres and other recreational centres local to a chosen member of the Forum.  There are many good and well established ‘ Defibrillation Programs ‘ around the globe and money raised by donations to this site will be paid to these programs.

Why AED’s ?

Many visitors to this site will have much to thank early defibrillation for their continued life.  Even with the best health screening at sports centres occasionally someone will go into a life-threatening heart rhythm such as ventricular fibrillation or pulseless ventricular tachycardia.  It is only early defibrillation which will save their life.  With each minute that passes from the onset of cardiac arrest, the likelihood of survival decreases 7-10% and there is a 43% chance of survival if CPR and defibrillation are given within 4 minutes of cardiac arrest and paramedic help arrives within 8 minutes ( AHA, 2002 ).  It is a sad fact that only a small percentage of public sports and recreational centres have an AED available.  By providing AED’s to sports centres a logical link between ‘cardiac ‘ and ‘ athleticism ‘ is continued which is the theme of this website.

How much do AED’s cost ?

Approximately $2000 - $ 2500 US Dollars / £ 1000 - £ 1300 GB Pounds ( 7 Mar’07 ).

Thank you for your kind and generous donation