Protect the Hero of the Home this Father's Day

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Media Release

Protect the hero of the home this Father’s Day

This year celebrity Chef Alessandro Pavoni, owner of hatted restaurant Ormeggio and Ambassador of Heart Research Australia, will be celebrating his first Father’s Day. After surviving cancer and two heart attacks, it was a day he thought he would never be lucky enough to experience.

Alessandro says he owes his life to the Heart Research Australia funded SALAMI Program which led to stents rather than slow acting drugs being used as the treatment of choice for heart attacks patients at Royal North Shore Hospital. The new protocol saw mortality rates for heart attack victims drop from 30% to 8% and has since been adopted as best practice by hospitals around the country.

Anna, his wife says “It was incredible to learn that research funded by Heart Research Australia led to the very practices and approaches that saved Alessandro.” 

Alessandro and Anna recently become very proud parents to a beautiful baby girl Jada, making them even more appreciative and grateful for the medical treatment Alessandro received. 

Anna says “I can’t be grateful enough or shout it loud enough from the rooftops about how much we all need Heart Research Australia. Heart attacks can happen to anyone – even your young, fit friends and family.” 

“Despite life-saving advances such as the SALAMI program, heart disease sadly still affects two out of three families, and someone’s son, father or husband is taken away every two hours in Australia due to a fatal heart attack*. Heart Research Australia is passionate about reducing the incidence of heart disease, through continued funding of innovative life-saving research into the detection, treatment and prevention of heart disease”, says Mrs Floyd Larsen, CEO Heart Research Australia. 

“This Father’s Day we urge the Father’s, son’s and husbands of Australia, who are the heroes of the home, to empower themselves with the knowledge on how to protect themselves from future heart disease, by visiting our website for heart health information and to make a donation to contribute towards our funding of life-saving heart research,”  add Larsen.

Alessandro opened his first restaurant, Ormeggio at the Spit, in 2009 and this Father’s Day he will design a special Father’s Day lunch menu and donate $5 to Heart Research Australia for every guest that day.

Ormeggio at the Spit offers Contemporary Italian cuisine in a spectacular waterside setting, overlooking Middle Harbour and Pearl Bay. It has Two Chef Hats in the Sydney Morning Herald’s Good Food Guide 2014 and has been a hatted restaurant since opening in 2009. Visit www.ormeggio.com.au to secure your booking.

For further information or to support Heart Research Australia’s research visit www.heartresearch.com.au 

ENDS.

*Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics. Australian Health Survey 2011/12

For further information or to schedule an interview, contact Michelle Kearney, Communications Manager, Heart Research Australia at michelle@heartresearch.com.au or (M) 0410 922 670.

Should an acronym be essential due to space constraints, kindly use “HROz” when referring to the organisation.

About Heart Research Australia – www.heartresearch.com.au
Heart Research Australia raises funds for research into the diagnoses, treatment and prevention of Australia’s biggest killer – heart disease. We strive to support life-saving heart research that benefits all Australians.