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Scarlett Van Berkel

Walk 1K a Day in May

My Activity Tracking

68
kms

My target 31 kms

🌟 I need your support! 🌟

I'm on a mission to raise money for Heart&Stroke, and I can’t do it alone. Every donation, big or small, brings me one step closer to my fundraising target.

Will you join me in making a difference? 🙌

Together, we can make every beat count! 💪

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Reach My Goal

Raised

$300

My Goal

$250

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My Achievements

First Donation Received

50% Reached Target

Received 5 Donations

Reached Fundraising Target

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Reached Fitness Target

My Updates

We Thought We Had More Time

Thursday 14th May

This week, our family lost someone we loved.  He was our age, the kind of person you always imagine being around for the long haul. He had been my husband's friend for twenty years.

He died of a heart attack.

In the days since, we've been sitting with the weight of all the things left unsaid. The dinner we kept meaning to arrange. The conversation that never happened because life got busy, and we assumed there was more time. There is always supposed to be more time.

I'm sharing this as part of my Heart & Stroke Foundation fundraiser, something I committed to before this week, and something that now feels more urgent and more personal than I could have anticipated.

We don't talk enough about heart disease in people under 40. It exists in our cultural imagination as something that happens later — to our parents, to the elderly, to people whose lives look different from ours. But the data tells a different story.

- it is the #1 leading cause of premature death in Canada.

- approximately 30% of Canadians who die from heart disease are under 65.

- 80% of premature heart disease and stroke is preventable.

The Heart & Stroke Foundation funds research that is actively changing those numbers — earlier detection, better understanding of risk factors in younger adults, improved emergency response, and community education that reaches people before a crisis does.

What happened to our friend might not have been preventable. We'll never know. But the work of this organization is about making sure that more families don't have to sit where we're sitting right now — in grief, in disbelief, in the quiet devastation of a future that got smaller without warning.

So here is what I'm asking, and I'm asking it gently but earnestly: give what you can. Give in his memory if you need a reason. Give because you have people in your life you are not ready to lose. Give because 80% preventable is a statistic that deserves to be acted on.

And then, after you donate, or instead of, or alongside — please make the plan you've been putting off. Send the text. Book the dinner. Show up for the people who make your life fuller. Don't wait for a better week.

We thought we had more time. We always do.

Rest in Peace, Flynn.. Thank you for always being a thoughtful gentleman in my presence and for being a reliable friend to Pat.

When Heart Disease Hits Home: The Caribbean Community’s Invisible Health Crisis

Tuesday 5th May
My dad had a heart attack. My mum had a stroke. They both survived — and I am endlessly grateful for that. But growing up with deep roots in Jamaica, I’ve watched these diseases move through our community like a quiet current. An uncle here. A neighbour there. A friend’s parent gone too soon.

It’s not just my family’s story. It’s ours.

In Jamaica, cardiovascular disease is now the leading cause of death, with a crude mortality rate from ischemic heart disease and stroke of approximately 110 per 100,000 people (Jamaica Health and Lifestyle Survey II, 2007/08). That’s not a distant statistic — that’s the island so many of us call home, or trace our lineage to.

For those of us in the diaspora, the risk travels with us. In Canada, people of African and South Asian heritage — communities that make up a significant portion of the Caribbean diaspora — face a higher risk of developing both heart disease and stroke (Heart & Stroke Foundation of Canada). Hypertension, one of the leading drivers of both conditions, affects Caribbean-origin communities at disproportionately high rates, often developing before the age of 55 (Journal of the American College of Cardiology, 2021). These patterns are shaped by genetics, yes — but also by systemic barriers to care, economic stress, and the particular weight of building a life far from home.

And the risks aren’t evenly shared within our communities either. Women of Caribbean descent face elevated risks during pregnancy, including being significantly more likely to experience high blood pressure-related complications like preeclampsia (Heart & Stroke Foundation of Canada). These are not just medical facts — they are reflections of deeper inequities that our communities have been navigating for generations.

Historical and systemic factors play a major role in these disparities, including limited access to healthcare and healthy foods, and broader social conditions that shape where and how people live (American Heart Association). For Caribbean communities — at home and in the diaspora — that history is long and layered. It includes colonial legacies, migration stress, and healthcare systems that have too often treated us as an afterthought.

Knowing the risk is the first step. Acting on it — together — is the next.

When I think about my parents, I think about how different things could have been without the right care at the right moment. Research saves lives. And the Heart & Stroke Foundation funds that research — including work that is beginning to take the health of communities like ours more seriously.

If this resonates with you, I’d love your support. Every dollar brings us closer to a future where no  family has to wonder if their loved one will make it.

Why I’m Running for Heart & Stroke This Year

Saturday 2nd May
This year, I’m raising money for the Heart & Stroke Foundation — and it’s deeply personal.
In 2016, my dad had a heart attack while having stents put in. Three years later, in 2019, my mum suffered a stroke that could have been prevented had the hospital caught the signs when she came to emergency. Two moments. Two parents. One family forever changed.
Since then, my parents’ wellbeing has rarely left my mind. It showed up in small ways — like the heart-healthy cooking classes my dad and I started doing together, learning how to build meals that actually support a healthy heart. I still try to teach him about heart-healthy eating every chance I get. Some lessons stick. Some require a little more patience. But showing up for each other in the kitchen has been one of the most meaningful ways we’ve found to take back some control after everything that happened.
My mum, though — she has always been my rider. Ready for adventure at the drop of a hat. The stroke shifted a lot of that. She lost some of her vision and has struggled with her memory ever since. But what she’s done with that challenge is nothing short of remarkable. She’s built community out of a hard time. She’s been parasailing in Hawaii. She continues to surpass every limitation that might have stopped someone else cold.
I’m so proud of both of them.
I’m doing this to honour their resilience, to raise awareness around heart health, and to help others who are navigating the same fears our family has lived with. Because no one should have to wonder whether a trip to emergency could have changed everything — and whether the right knowledge, earlier, might have made all the difference.

Thank you to my Donors

$50

Pip South

Wish it could be more but I donate 3 times a year to Heart & Stroke. Best of luck and I hope you’ll achieve your goal.

$50

Lauren

Go Scarlett! Xo

$50

Kira

$25

Mathy M.

The Heart & Stroke foundation is close to our heart too. Proud to support this cause! Thanks for pushing yourself to support this cause!

$25

Anonymous

$25

Ashley Patterson

$25

Jenn Thompson

$25

Paula Dixon

$15

Nashanda

$10

Donna K