Welcome to the Nanaimo Heart Sisters, a support group for women living on Central Vancouver Island, BC, who have experienced heart or stroke health issues.
Our group’s mission is to create a safe and supportive space for women of all ages who want to share their experiences about surviving heart disease or stroke incidents in their lives.
Did you know?
Heart disease and stroke are the #1 cause of premature death for women in Canada.
Heart disease and stroke claimed the lives of more than 32,200 women in Canada in 2019.
Every 17 minutes, a woman in Canada experiences a stroke. Out of a daily total of 85 women, 18 of them will die. In Canada, up to one-third more women die of stroke than men.
One-half of women who experience a heart attack have their symptoms go unrecognized.
Indigenous women have a 53 per cent higher death rate from coronary heart disease than non-Indigenous women.
Sources - from the Heart & Stroke Foundation of Canada:
Lives disrupted: The impact of stroke on women – 2018 Stroke Report
System failure: Healthcare inequities continue to leave women’s heart and brain health behind - 2023
JUNE IS STROKE MONTH IN CANADA:
NEWS ABOUT HEART DISEASE AND STROKE:
June 14, 2025 - From Manitoba to NASA: How disrupted sleep patterns could hold the key to heart disease
June 11, 2025 - 9 Things Women’s Health Doctors Would Never Do
June 4, 2025 - Want to stay healthy when you fly? Here's the plane truth
May 30, 2025 - Where there’s smoke, there’s fire – and heart health risks
May 22, 2025 - Even Small Amounts of Exercise May Help Older Women Avoid Stroke
ADVOCACY EFFORTS FOR A CARDIAC CATHETERIZATION LAB
Fair Care Alliance advocating to expand health care for Central and North Island residents
The Fair Care Alliance is a coalition of concerned medical, healthcare, business and community professionals and citizens who are fighting to ensure fair access to health care for the 460,000 people living north of Victoria, in Central and North Vancouver Island.
Specifically, the Alliance is advocating for a cardiac catheterization lab and patient tower to be built at an expanded Nanaimo Regional General Hospital.
To sign the Fair Care Alliance petition to support the building of a cardiac cath lab and patient tower in Nanaimo visit the Alliance’s petition page.
June 4, 2025 - Update from the Fair Care Alliance:
Petition Submission Update
While the BC Legislature is on its summer break, the Alliance says it will use that time to finalize their petition and confirm who will present the petition to lawmakers in the House. Until then, petition signatures are still being accepted and encouraged.
To sign the petition, go to the Alliance’s petition page.
The Alliance is asking people to stay tuned for more details on the petition submission when the government is formally back in session.
Cardiology Study Underway
Thanks to the pressure and advocacy from the Fair Care Alliance movement, Island Health and the BC Government initiated a study to evaluate the need for a cardiac catheterization lab in the Central-North Island.
The study is being conducted by KPMG and is expected to be released within the coming month. The Alliance anticipates that the study will recommend establishing a cath lab in the Nanaimo region. The key question will be the timing of its development.
The Alliance is urging everyone to stay tuned to see what the study reveals and how everyone can work together to ensure a cath lab is brought to the region as soon as possible.
The Nanaimo Heart Sisters attended a standing-room only rally in support of the Fair Care Alliance initiative at Beban Park Auditorium on September 12, 2024.
Heart Sisters Joanne Booth (left) and Shelley Wilkins Wallace (right).
Heart Sisters receive update about future cardiac catheterization lab in Nanaimo
On Saturday, January 18, 2025, the Nanaimo Heart Sisters welcomed Barney Ellis-Perry, Chief Executive Officer of the Nanaimo & District Hospital Foundation, and Janice Krall, the Foundation’s Chief Development Officer, to our monthly meeting.
They offered advice to the Heart Sisters on how to advocate as a group in support of a new cardiac catheterization lab that would serve residents of the Central and North Vancouver Island.
The Heart Sisters are encouraged to advocate and write in support of the Cath Lab to the cabinet ministers listed below. Please note: To reach the following emails, please highlight and copy each address below and then paste it into your Outlook or other email provider in order to send your message:
Minister of Health - Honourable Josie Osborne HLTH.Minister@gov.bc.ca
Minister of Finance - Honourable Brenda Bailey FIN.Minister@gov.bc.ca
Minister of Infrastructure - Honourable Bowinn Ma INF.Minister@gov.bc.ca
Minister of Social Development and Poverty Reduction - Honourable Sheila Malcomson, SDPR.Minister@gov.bc.ca
(l-r) Janice Krall, Diane Shipclark, Barney Ellis-Perry
The Central/North Island is the only region in Canada with a population of over 400,000 without a Cath Lab; Victoria has two.
Despite the high percentage of people experiencing heart disease in the Central/North Island region, the Foundation says these patients are dying or left with poor health outcomes due to the lack of advanced cardiac services and a cath lab outside of Victoria. A cath lab is a medical facility in which doctors can perform lifesaving, non-surgical interventions.
Nanaimo Heart Sisters meet with BC’s Minister of Social Development and Poverty Reduction
On Friday, March 14, 2025, a Heart Sisters’ delegation made a presentation to Sheila Malcolmson, MLA for Nanaimo-Gabriola Island and BC Minister of Social Development and Poverty Reduction. The presentation, done by Heart Sisters Shelley Wallace, Diane Shipclark and Joanne Booth, advocated for a cardiac catheterization lab to be constructed at or adjacent to Nanaimo Regional General Hospital.
The new cath lab would serve residents living in Central/North Vancouver Island.
(l-r) Minister Sheila Malcolmson, Diane Shipclark, Shelley Wallace and Joanne Booth at the minister’s constituency office in Nanaimo.
The Heart Sisters were encouraged when the minister advised them that she fully supports a catheter lab operating in Nanaimo.
Minister Malcolmson stressed that while the cath lab was not included in the most recent BC provincial government budget, she’s hopeful that it will be in the next provincial budget.
FROM THE HEART & STROKE FOUNDATION:
April 16, 2025 - How to build a heart-healthy plate: tips and grocery list included
February 4, 2025 - Heart & Stroke report: More people surviving congenital heart disease and living longer
Spring 2024 - The latest Heart & Stroke Foundation report focusses on stroke - Spring 2024 Impact Report
Winter 2024 - New Heart & Stroke Foundation report - Winter 2024 Impact Report
Stroke - “I am here for a reason.” Lynne’s Indigenous culture helped sustain her through a devastating stroke
Interesting links about how to prevent and manage heart disease and stroke:
Feel Healthy with Dr. Scott Lear - Visit this blog written by a Vancouver-based professor at Simon Fraser University who conducts research into the prevention and management of heart disease focusing on supporting healthy lifestyles. Dr. Lear also holds the Pfizer/Heart and Stroke Foundation Chair in Cardiovascular Prevention Research at St. Paul’s Hospital in Vancouver, BC.
Latest Heart & Stroke research breakthroughs - Read about the work researchers are doing to beat heart failure and stroke
The impact of COVID-19 - Learn how the coronavirus has impacted people living with heart disease or stroke
Island Health - Heart Health Services - Find out about the Island Heath services for those living with cardiac disorders