Brenda Hildebrand will head to Regina next week to speak at the legislature about Heart Failure Awareness Week. (Submitted Photo/Brenda Hildebrand)

By Julia Lovett-Squires

Heart Failure

North Battleford woman shows she’s all heart for upcoming speaking engagement at Legislative Assembly

Apr 29, 2024 | 11:50 AM

Four and a half years ago, Brenda Hildebrand “wasn’t feeling the greatest.”

After many trips to Battlefords Union Hospital, she was sent to Saskatoon after numerous tests, she had the answer: cardiomyopathy – the inability of the heart to pump blood properly.

After being admitted to Royal University Hospital on the August long weekend in 2019, her heart rate plummeted and two days later she had a pacemaker defibrillator put in.

“I realized at that point, they told me I would need a heart transplant,” she said.

Hildebrand was initially skeptical about going through with the surgery but upon further reflection, the patient – who survived breast cancer 15 years earlier, decided she wasn’t going to let her heart take her.

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“I decided I’m going to be in charge of my life and I’m going to do what I can,” she said, noting she was set up with the Heart Function Clinic.

Now, the North Battleford woman, will bear her heart at the Regina Legislature next week to help others in the province in her role as an advocate.

“They wanted me to advocate with MLAs to increase access to specialized heart failure services, especially those of us who live in rural areas,” Hildebrand said.

National Heart Failure Awareness Week runs from May 5 to 11 and she will speak to Parliament in Regina on Monday, May 6 to discuss her personal story and help make a difference in others’ lives.

“We need to make it aware to the MLAs that rural areas don’t have all the access that we need,” she said, noting it’s important to manage the diagnosis and that it can be easy.

Since her own experience with a life altering condition, she has taken on her role as an advocate with passion after first being asked by the Heart and Stroke Foundation last June.

“I’ll do anything for anybody and the association to help make awareness and yes, it’s a lot of work but people can take care of themselves and if we really want to live and do things, we can do it,” she said.

According to heartfailure.ca, 100,000 people will be diagnosed this year and is “now one of the fastest growing cardiovascular conditions in the world.”

Hildebrand explained the day she attends the legislature, it will be set up in such a way that will allow the participants to attend a forum before meeting with the politicians to share their stories.

“I have a scrapbook that I’ve been doing from day one,” she said, noting it is filled with hospital bracelets, photos of the medical equipment, her heart rate, and of her with her support team.

“It humbles me very much, I feel very honoured that they’ve asked me to be the spokesperson for the rural area,” she said.

Meanwhile, as she looks forward to the event, her mind reflects on a dear friend who passed away due to heart disease.

“His line was always ‘choose joy’ you know, choose to fight on,” she said, noting they both committed to that motto.

“We want to make a difference in other peoples’ lives. I want my story to get out there that people want to talk to me or share things with them,” she said.

“I want people to realize it takes work, but you need to fight for yourself, you need to communicate with your doctors, you need to communicate with the Heart Function Clinic,” Hildebrand said of the process.

“They can do this, and they don’t have to give up.”

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julia.lovettsquires@pattisonmedia.com

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