Rachel McCarthy, Senior Development Director, American Heart Association presented at a recent luncheon meeting of the Cincinnati Eastside Rotary. For nearly 100 years, the American Heart Association has been fighting heart disease and stroke and helping families and communities thrive.

Before the American Heart Association existed, people with heart disease were thought to be doomed to complete bed rest — or destined to imminent death.

But a handful of pioneering physicians and social workers believed it didn’t have to be that way. They conducted studies to learn more about heart disease, America’s No. 1 killer. Then, on June 10, 1924, they met in Chicago to form the American Heart Association — believing that scientific research could lead the way to better treatment, prevention and ultimately a cure. The early American Heart Association enlisted help from hundreds, then thousands, of physicians and scientists.

The American Heart Association Impact includes:

FMI: Heart.org.