Attend the CSANZ 2025 - 73RD ANNUAL SCIENTIFIC MEETING

Hi my name is Cindy and I’m fundraising to attend ‘CSANZ

2025 73RD ANNUAL SCIENTIFIC MEETING OF THE CARDIAC SOCIETY OF AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND CONFERENCE’ where our manuscript will be presented.

https://youtu.be/Qkq-6hAnATE?si=wr-JTMzHikJHp6Zy

A bit about myself and why I’m doing this:

I was misdiagnosed with asthma in my 20’s but the puffer did nothing to relieve my symptoms.

It wasn’t until I was about 35 that I was given my coronary vasospasm diagnosis. This was because I suffered a myocardial infarction in non obstructed coronary arteries called a MINOCA.

I had the typical heart attack symptoms of central stabbing chest pain that went up my neck, down my arms and it made me vomit. You see women aren’t the same with their chest pain. They may have shoulder blade pain, tooth pain or may just feel a little bit off. Women aren’t the same with their chest pain.

I soon realised there wasn’t a lot of information out there about the condition. At the time I felt isolated an alone and decided to join a support group. The group had under 20 members when I joined in 2016. As the group grew, we discovered like minded individuals wanting to create change and advocate for our under recognised condition. In 2020, 4 patients with the condition formed the International Heart Spasms Alliance (IHSA). Our fabulous webdesigner also has the condition. Please take a look at our amazing website -https://www.internationalheartspasmsalliance.org/conditions/coronary-vasospasm/.

Our main goal is to advocate for those like ourselves, that don’t have a voice! We have built an international support group and we provide support for over 5K vulnerable members. Our IHSA website is well respected by medical professionals and members who suffer the condition.

Two years ago we had an idea to put together some surveys so our members have a chance to voice what they feel. We realised that most of our members don’t freely talk about some of their symptoms they get with their doctors. Some of the data we collected is rarely seen in medical literature.

I’m beyond excited - our survey manuscript results will be presented at this major conference. This has been two years in the making! Our condition Coronary Vasospasm is under researched, under recognised and under diagnosed. We still don’t really know enough about this condition. We don’t know if it’s genetic.

Talking about genetics -

My dad died at the age of 40 from a sudden heart attack, I was only 14. He was working as a truck driver carting sheep when this occurred. He fell from the top story into the sheep below and couldn’t be revived. He had two other heart events with his first heart attack at 28, which he could no longer serve in the army. Then when he had his second heart event, he was taken off all his cardiac medications and told it was gastrointestinal and given a medication for his stomach! My dad had similar symptoms as I do and it’s been suggested that he had the same condition. He underwent an autopsy.

Imagine being 14 and having to go see your dad for the last time, many weeks after he had passed! That is not something I wish on anyone, especially that young. My personal goal is to ensure my dad’s death was not in vane!

My daughter was only 12 when I had my first MINOCA event at 4am in the morning. That was back in 2010. This must have been one of the scariest times for her not knowing whether she would see her mum again. I was certainly terrified!

Time for change!!!

I’m not one to sit still. I’ve always been someone that says if it is to be it’s up to me.

After I was diagnosed I completed two nursing degrees to get health literate and advocate for myself.

There is more that is needing to be done to highlight this under recognised and under researched condition.

I’m over the moon that we will be presenting our research at this massive conference! We are making progress slowly but surely. This is an opportunity of a lifetime. Please help me to get to this conference and help others.