PIX 11 reported that Black Heart Association Founders Tara and Frederick Robinson stopped in Harlem to promote the importance of heart health and to provide free screenings.
The Texas-based nonprofit provided Harlem residents free heart screenings on Aug. 18 during a stop on its Guard Your Heart Tour, sponsored by biotech company Amgen. The goal is to provide free health screenings to 2,500 people by the end of 2024. Founder Tara Robinson and her husband, Frederick, started the company in 2014 after Robinson suffered three heart attacks over seven days. The third one almost cost her her life.
The Robinsons sat down with Black Enterprise to tell their story and discuss why their work is so important.
“I ended up having a massive heart attack with 99% blockage in my left artery. That type of heart attack is known as the ‘widow maker.’ So I was 40 years old at the time of my heart attacks, and I almost didn’t make it to my 41st birthday,” Robinson said. “That led me to start advocating and volunteering and that led me to start my own nonprofit when I saw that the gap was not being filled; that we needed to have up close and personal relationships with our community on our health.”
According to WCNC Charlotte, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) gave an alarming statistic that Black women suffer from higher rates of heart disease, coronary disease, and stroke deaths in comparison to white women in the U.S. “I’m the strong Black woman,” Robinson said. “I think I’m the poster child for it. That’s definitely part of why I had my heart attacks because I internalized stress so much.
In February 2024, the organization
partnered with the CDC Foundation’s Live to the Beat campaign for a new initiative entitled the Heart2Heart Challenge, with the goal of assisting Black women in protecting their heart health. The Director of the CDC’s Office of Health Equity, Dr. Leandris Liburd, encouraged women to make small commitments to addressing heart health.“In that challenge, we are asking for three things: One is to make a commitment to take one small step, and that one small step can be walking every day,” Liburd said.
”We can reduce this burden of heart disease with good medical care and also by making good lifestyle changes.”
The CDC recommends a self-care routine that includes finding ways to limit stress, monitoring blood pressure and cholesterol, and having a solid support system. The Robinsons use their Black Heart Mobile Unit to give people their cholesterol numbers and AC-1 numbers (diabetes).