Community steps up to raise funds and heartbeats for Cape Fear Heart Walk

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) – The community stepped up and got moving over the weekend to support heart health and awareness.

It was a day to socialize with friends, family, and coworkers, and a day to boost heart health.

According to Cape Fear Heart Walk Chair Shelbourn Stevens, the heart walk is meant to bring attention to the number one killer among Americans.

“It is also bringing education and awareness not only about heart and vascular disease but how to stay healthy and fit,” he said.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, heart disease is the leading cause of death among men and women in the nation.

Saturday’s Heart Walk not only brought attention to the disease but helped raise money for research.

According to the American Heart Association Director of Development of the Cape Fear Chapter Ashley Miller, despite a few setbacks the walk is back, and better than ever.

“We were on hiatus for one year, and last year we just had a pop-up walk, where people could walk at their leisure,” she said.  “But this year we’re back.”

Participants warmed up to music, before taking on the three-mile walk around UNCW’s campus, which was in honor of the late Windell Daniels who died of a massive heart attack in 2008.

According to Windell’s widow, Wilma Daniels, there were no signs that something like this could happen to her late husband.

“It caught me off guard, I couldn’t believe he passed away,” she said. “I thought he was going to have to have a defibrillator.”

Caroletta Daniels was his daughter-in-law.

“It was a shock to the community, he was very much a community leader, and no one was expecting this,” she said.

Windell Daniels was a longtime community leader and was involved in many projects.

Windell Daniels was co-chair of the Ten Year Plan to End Homelessness, and a member of the Board of Trustees at UNCW.

The Daniels family continues to bring awareness to promote change in people’s lifestyles and help raise money by sharing their stories and participating in the Cape Fear Heart Walk every year.

“It helped to change their lives, their eating habit,  exercising, walking, doing those things, taking care of themselves,” said Wilma Daniels.

Hannah Dombrowski is a survivor of two major heart operations, she’s participated in the walk since she was an infant, and is now 10 years old.

“I might have a life-threatening disease, heart failure, but even if I do, I still look on the positive side of things,” she said.

According to Dombrowski, life is fragile, and urges everyone to make health their number one priority.

“You might have a healthy heart, but you don’t want to take that for granted,” she said.

The event helped raise nearly $160,000, the funds raised will support up-to-the-minute research to help better prevent and treat heart disease and groundbreaking pediatric heart and stroke research.

To learn more about heart health and how to spot a heart attack or stroke click here, and those who’d like to help support heart research can find information here.