Rob Mitchell (McEwen, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

This Sunday, 14 February marks not only Valentine's Day but also Sweetheart Day, an annual fundraising event on the HeartKids organisation's calendar. HeartKids is a great community organisation that supports children with heart disease and their families. Heart disease is the biggest killer of Australian kids under the age of one. Eight kids are born with a heart defect every day in Australia, and four precious lives are lost. To date, HeartKids has committed over $2 million of funding for research into childhood heart disease, aimed at understanding the causes and reducing the incidence of the disease.

Just recently, HeartKids Victoria and Tasmania posted a message about embryonic development of the heart on their Facebook page to show just how little is known about the causes of congenital heart defects. Perhaps if we can learn more about this, we can also prevent the onset of heart disease later in life.

To build awareness and raise much needed funds, HeartKids encourages Australians to 'show their heart' across the month of February and host Sweetheart Day on 14 February. You can make a donation directly to the organisation or buy gifts and other merchandise, with all funds going towards childhood heart disease research.

Funds raised via Sweetheart Day will be used to continue lifesaving research and to support the annual teen camp and the new MyHeart website dedicated to help and provide peer support to young people with childhood heart disease. I cannot stress enough the importance of awareness, fundraising and research into the causes and prevention of childhood heart disease. So please take part in Sweetheart Day and give generously to this worthy cause.

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