Boston Congenital Heart Walk will benefit heart warriors, honor heart angels
Families participating in the annual New England Congenital Heart Walk at Boston’s Franklin Park Zoo on Saturday will walk to benefit heart warriors and honor heart angels.
About 1 in 100 babies, or 40,000, are born in the United States each year with a congenital heart defect (CHD), according the Children’s Heart Foundation, the organization that runs the event with the mission to “advance the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of congenital heart defects by funding the most promising research.”
Jimmy Archibald, a 2.5-year-old boy from Wakefield, will join his big brother, Willy, 4, and his parents Caroline and Dean on the one-mile walk followed by fun activities at the zoo.
Jimmy was born with a serious CHD and has undergone three open-heart surgeries. The first was before he turned one month old, the second at three months old and the most recent – the final in the three-stage series of procedures – was in mid-March. Resilient Jimmy was running the halls of Boston Children’s Hospital within 10 days of his last surgery.
“He is my superhero. He inspires us to do better every day,” proud mom Caroline told Boston 25 News. “He is stronger than I will ever be, and yeah, he’s amazing.”
Jimmy’s heart defect is tricuspid atresia, hypoplastic right heart syndrome. He was essentially born with half a working heart. While he used to cough and need to take breaks while running around, he is now playing as any other healthy kid his age does: riding bikes, enjoying the playground and splash pad and going to school and on playdates with friends.
While Jimmy will be monitored throughout his life and may need other interventions in the future, Caroline and Dean consider themselves fortunate to have a happy and healthy Jimmy back home.
“We still don’t have a cure,” Caroline said. “He’s still living with this every day. So, it’s incredibly important to our family to raise awareness.”
The family recognizes the importance not only of raising money and awareness but also of lending and receiving support from other heart families.
“It’s a really emotional thing for a family to have a loved one born with a congenital heart defect,” Dean said. “And to talk to another family that’s been through it themselves and offer up some support and they offer it in return is really, really special. And the least we can do is pay that forward.”
The Children’s Heart Foundation says the series of walks around the country last year raised more than $2 million.
Registration for the event at the Franklin Park Zoo in Boston on Sat., May 18, is at 7 a.m., with the opening ceremony kicking off at 8:15 and the walk beginning at 8:50.
To register or donate, visit www.childrensheartfoundation.org.
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