Page 76 - Cityview Jan-Feb 2017

74JANUARY FEBRUARY 2017NONPROFIT SPOTLIGHTimportance of heart health, nutrition, exercise, and CPR training, which helped save Stone’s life.“It was God and the CPR that helped me keep my son alive,” says David Buckner. “Without that training, I wouldn’t have known what to do.”SURVIVING LOSS: HEARTBREAK IN EUROPEIt should have been the trip of a lifetime. Becky Thornton was the picture of good health: she regularly hit the links, walked several times a week, and had recently seen a cardiologist for a check-up. “Everything was perfectly normal,” says her daughter, Nancy Barger. “She had no symptoms.”But while on a trip to Spain, Thornton su ered the heart attack that would kill her. She was 66 years old.Barger was understandably terri ed— her mother was on the brink of death and thousands of miles from home with her 13-year-old niece. And this wasn’t the rst heart-related incident in their family: Barger’s own daughter Emma was born with two holes in her heart,a main artery growing in the wrongplace, a heart murmur, and had open heart surgery at the tender age of four. Barger’s grandfather died of congestive heart failure. Her family was no stranger to heartbreak, but Barger said the turn of events was a mixed blessing.Barger was able to spend ten days alone with her mother, which wouldn’t have been possible had she su ered the heart attack at home in Knoxville. “If she’d been here, there would have been family and friends, and that’s ne,” says Barger, “but I had my own time with my mother, and I wouldn’t take anything for that.” The AHA reached out to Barger a er her mother was put to rest, and Barger says their warm assistance made her want to give back—and it was her mother’s love of life that inspired her unique decision.“Mom was an avid party-thrower,” says Barger, her smile brightening her voice despite the dark memories. “The AHA reached out to us, so I knew the best way to honor my mother was to host an event for them.”Thornton owned Hunter Valley Farms, which Barger has taken over. She hosted an AHA luncheon inMay—her way of giving back. “It was completely personal,” recalls Barger. “With so many people in my immediate family a ected by heart problemsand the American Heart Association stepping up the way they did, I wanted to do something. I still do. I’ll always be grateful to them.”LOCAL LIAISONSFebruary is American Heart Month, and the AHA strives to bring awareness that heart disease is the leading cause of death for men and women. Withso many people making resolutionsin the new year to get or stay healthy, it’s an ideal time to educate and motivate yourself to take strides against succumbing to heart disease and stroke, which studies show kill approximately one woman every 80 seconds.“Many people associate heart disease with older men, but the truth is that heart disease is the number one killer of men and women,” says Katie Erpenbach with the Knoxville chapter of the AHA. “In fact, heart disease kills more women than all forms of cancer combined. The good news is 80 percent of cardiac and