Maria Vamvakinou (Calwell, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As the co-chair of Parliamentary Friends of Heart and Stroke Foundations, I am very pleased to work in parliament to raise awareness of heart disease generally and in this week in particular to raise awareness of Australian women's heart health by promoting the Heart Foundation's campaign Making the Invisible Visible for the month of June.

Heart disease is the No. 1 killer of women in Australia, claiming three times as many lives as breast cancer. Unfortunately, many women do not consider heart disease as a prime health issue that affects them. However, each day 50 Australian women have a heart attack, with heart disease claiming 24 female lives in Australia every day. Women tend to focus on awareness raising and preventative measures for gynaecological and breast cancers, but we also need to pay attention to heart disease as a matter for women as well as for men.

Risk factors such as lifestyle, obesity, depression, cholesterol and blood pressure all contribute to heart disease, and these factors are common issues throughout our community, especially in my electorate of Calwell, where the number of non-English-speaking background residents with cultural nuances make it imperative that awareness is focused in a linguistically relevant way on diseases that may ultimately claim the lives of beloved family members. It is important, therefore, to ensure that women in my community know the risk factors of heart disease and are also taking precautionary steps to protect their heart health.

Women are more likely to experience atypical symptoms, such as jaw, shoulder, neck and back pain, when having a heart attack, but only one in four women are aware of at least one of the symptoms. So we need to do everything we can to educate and inform women of all the symptoms of a heart attack so that they can act immediately in order to save their life or the life of another.

This month marks the Heart Foundation's Making the Invisible Visible awareness month. It is a time to shine a light on women's heart health and, as the campaign suggests, make the invisible—women's heart health—visible. So on Wednesday, I and my co-chair, the member of Capricornia, in conjunction with Abbott Vascular will host an event to raise awareness for women's heart health and the need for innovations in detection and treatment. At this event we will hear from professors of heart health, but importantly, we will hear the journey of Emma Waite, a mother of three who at just 41 was diagnosed with a blocked artery.

There are many ways every Australian can show how big their heart is. Throughout June, the Heart Foundation is urging all Australian's to put women's heart health of the national agenda by organising fundraisers, donating online, giving through work or campaigning in the community. You can go online to the Heart Foundation's website and download posters and post on social media with the hashtag #womenshearts.

I think we should all show our support. I encourage my colleagues to attend the meeting on Wednesday and help to protect the hearts of the women we love.