Saratoga News

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Have a heart--join local teen in walkathon

By Michele Tjin

Saratoga teen Catherine Wang is healthy and has a good heart, in all senses of the word. She has devoted her summer to bringing awareness of heart disease with HeartWalk, a walkathon and fundraiser event she is organizing.

"It's important to know about the leading cause of death," she said. "In Saratoga, there's a high Asian population, and heart disease is prevalent in the Asian community."

Catherine, 16, is asking community members to meet her at the Memorial Arch on Saratoga-Los Gatos Road on Aug. 12 at 8 a.m. The selected route of the walkathon will take participants to the Saratoga Library, just a little more than a mile away.

"It's not a race," Catherine said. "Not only is it to help people who are suffering, but it is to help other people be aware."

The participation fee is $10, which will go to the Heart Rhythm Foundation, an organization that educates the public about heart disorders.

Catherine became interested in heart conditions when she spent two days in April and June at Children's Hospital Boston, getting treatment for a back injury she developed while ice skating. There were long waits at the hospital, and she began to talk to several young heart transplant patients she saw in the waiting rooms. Though she has no congenital heart problems, she identified with the patients she met, her mother, Gloria Wu, said.

"It made her understand that heart disease can affect all ages," Wu said.

The HeartWalk is an activity that Catherine has undertaken mostly by her own efforts. She began planning for it after she returned from the hospital in June. She researched different heart organizations and worked with staff members of the Heart Rhythm Foundation to organize the HeartWalk. She is seeking sponsorships and donations from local businesses, and publicity so far consists of fliers and calls and e-mails to friends. Though her father is a cardiologist at Stanford, he has made it a point not to get involved, her mother said. The fundraiser is something she'll have to tackle by herself.

"I want her to see what she can do," Wu said. "She'll feel much more empowered."

Catherine, who will be a junior at Saratoga High School in the fall, is hoping 200 people turn out. She said it may be a tall order, but she has to start somewhere. Her mother likes that she is developing a sense of community activism.

"She's raising money and consciousness, and I'm proud that she can do this by herself," Wu said.