Anne Marie Walsh, a native of Claremorris, and her team, have been given national recognition for their remarkable efforts to improve the future for patients in Ireland. The Croí My Action — an innovative community based cardiovascular disease prevention programme — is one of 14 inspirational initiatives out of 109 projects entered, which have been shortlisted in this year’s Astellas Changing Tomorrow Awards.
The Croí My Action programme was established with the aim of reducing the incidence of cardiovascular diseases such as heart disease, stroke and peripheral vascular disease. The programme, which is community based, offers high risk individuals a 12 to 16 week intensive lifestyle modification programme. Risk factors such as cholesterol, blood pressure, physical inactivity, weight and smoking are all covered in the programme, which is the first of its kind to be established in Ireland and is a partnership between Croí the West of Ireland Cardiac Foundation, Imperial College London and HSE West Galway PCCC.
As a result of being shortlisted, Anne Marie and some of her colleagues from Croí, West of Ireland Cardiac Foundation will be invited to attend the Astellas Changing Tomorrow Awards ceremony in Dublin on Monday January 30, where each of the winners of five categories will receive a specially-commissioned trophy and a €1,000 educational/research grant.
