THE WEEKEND OUTLOOK Friday February Page Features Heart attack survivor enjoys new lease on life Richard Clague of Georgetown changed his lifestyle and career after suffering a heart attck in November 1988 Now he exercises eats right and works for the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Ontario as their Director of Corporate Relations Herald photo By LISA BOONSTOPPELPOT The Herald When a person survives a heart attack it changes their life For Richard Clague of Georgetown it spurred him on to adjust his lifestyle and switch to a career with the Ontario Heart and Stroke Foundation Before November 1988 Mr worked hours a day seven days a week with his own business Richard Clague and Associates Inc as a manage ment consultant I worked hard at what I felt like and generally figured I was invincible remembers Mr Clague But in November when a blood clot blocked his cholesterol laden arteries and stopped the blood flow to his heart he he wasnt invincible To save his life doctors at Toronto Western Hospital per formed a technique called perfu sion balloon angioplasty on Mr It involves introducing a small inflatable balloon into the coronary artery and inflating it to stretch the artery back to its nor size As the artery is expand ed the cholesterol lining in the artery begins to break up ex plained Mr Clague The fact that this technique had only been perfected eight months before it saved his life brought home to him how important research into heart disease and stroke is and he soon found himself interested in the Heart and Stroke organization which provides 67 percent of the funds used for Heart and Stroke research in Ontario When the foundation began advertising for a person to fulfill the duties of director of corporate relations Mr Clague was in terested and was hired in December 1990 When the position presented itself it was an opportunity for me to combine my experience with corporations from my business career with my interest in the foundation said Mr Clague In his new position Mr has two main duties One is to in form and encourage corporations to provide direct or outside ac cess to healthier lifestyle pro grams such as the wellness pro gram the foundation offers The other is to increase the financial participation of corporations for the foundation Hes also responsible for the direct canvassing of 300 national firms in Ontario which requires him to travel across Ontario Part of his travels include visiting the community chapters of the organization to help them develop programs for their com Promoting healthy attitudes within corporations Is an part of the job said Mr Clague Businesses often insure the physical aspects of the business but often theres not a whole lot of attention spent on the employees well being and their ability to be at work He said as the result of heart disease and stroke business loses billion a year from lost time lost capability and medical costs Mr has found he really enjoys his new position I like the challenge of trying to establish and create this new function of director of corporate relations But he says although its rewar ding to help raise money to fund research he lives with the fear that the research program the foundation wasnt able to fund may have been the one to make a significant difference The foundation only raises enough money to fund percent of the requests for research Last year the provincial foundation raised million of which million goes directly to research and the rest to education and ad ministration costs He knows how important it is to fund the foundation for if people hadnt been donating money to fund the development of perfu sion balloon angioplasty he wouldnt have his current posi tion with the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Ontario or his life Heart and Stroke luncheon kicksof f 1991 campaign The second annual Heart and Stroke Luncheon was another success as residents and businessmen filled the dining hall at North Golf and Country Club to listen to the President of the Canadian Manufacturers Association Laurent address Mr said in his speech to many local businessmen who are heart and stroke supporters that if Canada wants to maintain its high standard of living it has no choice but to become part of the global community I dont think we realize how pervasive the global community is said Mr ating the ability of modern technology to allow the transaction of billions of funds every second and passage of messages across the world in minutes so countries are no longer isolated He said Canada has to start looking at competing in the global market because its traditional exports of natural resources just arent as globally valuable as they used to be Some of the countries who have rapidly increased their standard of living in recent years have no natural resources said Mr We have to recognize the physical limits of our fisheries and forests We need to ask ourselves how Canada can position itself in the rapidly evolving global com munity He said Canadas signing of the free trade agreement with the United States is a step towards becoming globally competitive Canadas competitiveness has been gradually slipping as com panies are forced to pay higher wages to their workers than product value warrants As well he said statistics revealing Canadas low numbers on patents being Issued and the number of scientists per population is another indication that global competitors are getting ahead of us Clearly said Mr our factors to build economic growth are not at the level they should be In order to change this trend he suggested it time people took more control of how their funds are spent rather than allowing government to control how dollars are spent in this country The amount of money people allow to flow through to the government is too large he said We should return to a system where there are greater rewards for activity and greater punishment for mediocrity In order to compete globally he suggested Canadians should invest more in educating their people to develop new technologies which will allow Canada to maintain the standard of living Canadians have become accustomed to Also in attendance at the lun was the chairman of the local Heart and Stroke tion Steamer Emmerson area coordmator of the foundation Mary Goodfellow a tattve from the Ontario Heart and Stroke Foundation Richard cochairperson of the luncheon Carol Halton Peel MP Garth Turner and wife Dorothy Regional Chairman Peter Regional Director Heart and Stroke Marjone Halton Hills Mayor Miller local real estate agent and master of ceremonies Whiting and President of Varum Connell Smith Ms Goodfellow presented award certificates to several peo ple in the audience for their dona tion of money and time to the organization Among were Bob and Mary Malcolmson Laurie Burns from Work That Body Dave Paterson and Grant Richardson from the Ed Memorial Dart Tournament Gary Brand local real estate agent and Steamer whos been involved with chanties in the community for 50 years Mr Emmerson is a former Mayor of Georgetown and cur rent columnist with The Halton Hills Herald February is Heart and Stroke Month HEART AND STROKE OF ONTARIO Please give odds against Canada kilkr for the Ittl Hills Heart and Stroke Foundation campaign was officially kicked off at he second annual luncheon held at the North Golf and Country Club Wednesday with master of ceremonies for the dinner Whiting far left and Mary Goodfellow area coordlnator for the foundation beside Mr Whiting accepting donations Donations in this picture Include Dave and Grant Richardson standing centre from the Ed Paterson Memorial Dart Tournament and Bob and Norm Ward standing far right representing Georgetown Branch Royal Canadian Legion Seated at the table is Carol behind podium luncheon cochair Regional Director for llerrt and Stroke and Richard Director of Corporate Relations for the provincial foundation Herald photo Watch For KNECHTELS Weekly Specials on Page 5 then drop in to Georgetown 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