Last weekend, we attended the 6th annual Saving Tiny Hearts gala downtown. It was an incredible night, filled with remarkable people sharing their inspiring stories, and it evoked plenty of goosebumps and tears.
I'm truly elated that my husband is actively engaged with this charity. When he was younger, he lost a brother to a congenital heart defect. Congenital Heart Defects stand as the most prevalent birth defect in infants. In the US alone, over 25,000 babies are born each year with this condition, accounting for 1 out of every 115 to 150 births. (To provide some perspective, only 1 in every 800 to 1,000 babies is born with Downs Syndrome). Surprisingly, nearly twice as many children succumb to Congenital Heart Defects in the United States annually compared to all forms of childhood cancers combined. Yet, funding for pediatric cancer research stands at five times the amount allocated for CHD research.
Saving Tiny Hearts is a grassroots organization that has remarkably raised over $800,000 in funding. This funding supports research projects aimed at preventing and curing Congenital Heart Defects, which have caused immense pain and losses in many families.
I urge you to visit SavingTinyHearts.org to discover more about this initiative and lend your support to this noble cause.