With the help of family and friends I established the 2 BigHearts Foundation in the summer of 2004 to increase awareness of the issue of heart disease in women, and to give to those whose lives have been impacted by heart disease effecting a woman.

This is a very important mission for me, one borne from personal tragedy. One of the principal reasons I started the Foundation was to enlighten others as to the profound ramifications of heart disease in women. I want to do whatever I can to ensure that other families will not have to endure the shock, pain and grief that I felt - and that my family experienced - when my beloved wife and her sister died suddenly and virtually simultaneously as a direct result of undiagnosed heart disease. Their deaths were avoidable, and need not have happened, if only we had known about their heart conditions.

The story is tragic for many reasons, not the least of which because this did not have to happen. It began on Friday, June 18, 2004, when we received a call from Lexington, Kentucky. Sally Czechanski, my wife Gigi's beloved sister, had suffered a serious cardiac event while on a business trip to the area. Sally was in critical condition, and her prognosis was grave. Sally was 49 years old.

Shocked, saddened and wanting to be with her adoring sister and best friend, Gigi immediately arranged to be at Sally's side at St. Joseph's Hospital in Lexington. She flew to Lexington within hours to be with Sally. Then, shortly after arriving, the unfathomable happened: Gigi suffered an equally serious cardiac event, and was rushed to the emergency room for treatment. Her condition was grave, and she was taken to critical care, ironically, alongside her beloved sister, Sally. Gigi was 44 years old.

Gigi and Sally remained in grave condition, both suffering from the exact same condition. Ultimately, the agonizing decision had to be made to remove them from life support. There was, we were assured, no conceivable way these two beautiful people would recover from such devastating cardiac trauma. With hope lost, our family said a final goodbye to Sally and Gigi. The enormity of the loss is to be felt for a long time.

Gigi and Sally left this world on Friday, June 25, 2004, leaving literally hundreds of grief-stricken family members, friends, colleagues, neighbors, acquaintances, and loving pets. Words are insufficient to describe the profound sense of loss. Their love lives on, however, in their individual legacies of love, friendship, caring and compassion that they showed to everyone. Acknowledging this gives me great comfort.

What I want to accomplish with the 2 BigHearts Foundation by telling the poignant story of Gigi and Sally is to spread the word about heart disease in women - and to stress that a similarly tragic scenario is avoidable with proper heart health education. It was determined that both Gigi and Sally suffered their cardiac trauma as a direct result of cardiomyopathy, or an enlarged heart muscle. Had we known about this condition, both Gigi and Sally could have sought treatment that might have saved their lives. As it turns out, cardiomyopathy is a silent killer. And it is completely avoidable. They experienced no prior symptoms, and were never diagnosed with any heart problems.

With the 2 BigHearts Foundation, my mission is to educate others regarding the dangers of undiagnosed heart disease in women, work with the health care community and partner with organizations dedicated to research and education. What happened to Gigi and to Sally should not ever happen to anyone. Life is so precious, and if some level of understanding, hope and inspiration comes from this Foundation, it will be worth every second. And worthy of the memories of Gigi and Sally.

Thank you very much for your kindness, your understanding, and for your generosity in keeping their unconditional love, care and hope alive through the 2 BigHearts Foundation.

Jim Clarke
September 9, 2004