Canadian Pacific (CP) and the Heart and Stroke Foundation (Foundation) are teaming up to improve the health of all Canadians through a commitment of $3 million over three years toward cardia research.
“CP’s success has allowed us, through our community investment program CP Has Heart, to give back to the communities in which we operate in more significant ways than ever before,” said E. Hunter Harrison, CP’s CEO. “Our significant contribution to the Heart and Stroke Foundation is a testament to our broader commitment to increasing the heart health of all Canadians.”
The CP Has Heart Cardiovascular Awards will fund cardiac research grants at hospitals and research institutes across the country, with a focus on solutions for families. The grants will be selected through the Foundation’s world class peer review process, and recipients will be announced at the 2015 Canadian Cardiovascular Congress in Toronto in October.
“Research is the engine that drives the Foundation’s mission to prevent disease, save lives and promote recovery,” said David Sculthorpe, CEO of the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada. “This partnership with CP provides the largest single corporate injection ever into the Foundation’s research program. We are tremendously grateful to CP for showing such visionary corporate leadership. It will help to create more survivors and make a tangible difference in the lives of Canadians.”
Since the Heart and Stroke Foundation, a volunteer-based health charity, was founded more than 60 years ago, the death rate from heart disease and stroke has decreased by 75 per cent – due in large part to medical advances. Yet challenges today, including an aging population and rising rates of obesity and diabetes, threaten to erode the progress that has been made; heart disease and stroke continue to take a Canadian life every seven minutes, and account for 27 per cent of all deaths every year.