Women's Heart Health

Carolyn Thomas is a heart attack survivor and the first Canadian ever accepted to attend the WomenHeart Science & Leadership patient advocacy training at Mayo Clinic.

Since ‘graduating’ from her Mayo training in 2008, Carolyn has spoken to thousands of women (and a few men!) during her popular HEART SMART WOMEN presentations. As we’ll hear more about today, heart disease kills six times more women each year than breast cancer does – in fact, heart disease kills more women annually than all forms of cancer combined. Carolyn’s been on a mission to help change that grim reality since her Mayo Clinic training.

Her award-winning blog HEART SISTERS has attracted over 12 million views from 190 countries, and her writing about women’s heart health and the patient experience has been published internationally, including in the British Medical Journal. Since 2012, she’s also served as a Patient Reviewer for cardiology research papers submitted to that journal for publication.

Before her heart condition forced an early retirement, Carolyn’s work background included over 35 years in the public relations field, including corporate, government and not-for-profit sectors ranging from Mercedes-Benz to the Salvation Army and the Victoria Hospice Society. 

She is the author of “A WOMAN’S GUIDE TO LIVING WITH HEART DISEASE”, published hot off the press this month (November 2017) by Johns Hopkins University Press.