VCU takes National Wear Red Day to heart

By Pamela DiSalvo Lepley
Division of University Relations

Faculty, staff and students from Virginia Commonwealth University and the VCU Medical Center will participate in National Wear Red Day on Friday, Feb. 3, to show their support for women’s heart disease awareness.

Women and men from across the university are invited to unite with people across the country in wearing red on this day, and if possible, join hundreds of students and employees who are planning to gather for a photo at 11:45 a.m. in the courtyard outside of the Hermes A. Kontos Medical Sciences Building at 1217 E. Marshall St.

Participants will form a red heart, symbolizing the commitment of the VCU community to raise awareness about the risk of heart disease, especially among women, and what can be done to lower the risk.

More women die of heart disease than from all cancers combined, yet only 20 percent of women identify heart disease as the greatest health problem facing women today. In addition, many fail to make the connection between the risk factors for heart disease and their personal risk of developing it.

National Wear Red Day is part of a public education campaign about heart disease sponsored by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, which is part of the National Institutes of Health.

For more information on the campaign and heart disease, visit www.hearttruth.gov.