Barwon Health workers raise funds for Stroke Foundation

Barwon Health speech pathologist Cara Hill is teaming up with colleagues to raise at least $1,000 for the Stroke Foundation this month as part of its annual Stride4Stroke event.

Working in patient rehabilitation with people who’ve had strokes, Ms Hill said she felt compelled to help the foundation in its advocacy work.

“The stroke foundation do an amazing job spreading awareness, which is what we can do with our fundraising,” she said.

“There’s a few from our speech pathology team doing it but others from Barwon Health like the stroke ward at the hospital are doing it as well.”

The foundation estimates that each year 7,000 Victorians will have a stroke for the first time, despite 80 percent of strokes being preventable.

A key contributor is that more than three million Australians are physically inactive, putting them at greater risk of stroke and other chronic disease.

“It’s something that people may not think about, it’s a risk factor that they have control over,” Ms Hill said.

The Stride4Stroke event is designed to overcome the avoidable risk factors for strokes by getting people moving and the focus this year is on increasing “moving minutes”, an accessible and achievable goal for people that can include walking, running, cycling, online fitness or their own movement goal.

Ms Hill’s fundraising goal is to do five sets of 60 moving minutes a week for the month of November, including running longer distances and spending time in the gym.

“I don’t think I would be doing this amount each week, I’ll definitely be pushing myself,” she said.

The month-long campaign accommodates people of all ages and abilities and can be completed by either individuals or teams and participants set their own activity and fundraising goals, completing the challenge within the month of November.

Stroke Foundation executive director of marketing John De Rango applauded the Victorians who have already signed up to take part in the event.

“Every dollar raised will have such a huge impact and leave a lasting legacy…it will help us prevent stroke in Victoria, fund research and support survivors and their families through their recovery journey,” he said.

“It is amazing to see so many people using Stride4Stroke as an opportunity to focus on their health and to get moving during the month of November.”

To support the Barwon Health team, head to stride4stroke.org.au/fundraisers/bhspeechpathologyteam