October 19, 2023
Payworks, a Winnipeg-based national workforce management solutions provider, has made a gift of $125,000 in support of a women’s heart health research initiative at St. Boniface Hospital.
Women’s health is an issue near and dear to the heart of Payworks co-founder Barb Gamey – “pun intended,” she added. Gamey received an aortic valve replacement in November 2020 at St. Boniface Hospital.
“Supporting the women’s heart health research initiative at St. B seemed, for me, a natural decision,” Gamey said at the gift announcement, held September 20 at St. Boniface Hospital Albrechtsen Research Centre.
“Over 50 per cent of Payworks employees are women,” she noted.
Her own story illustrates how heart disease affects so many Canadian women.
“A doctor listened to my chest for an unrelated issue, and he said, ‘Barb, you have a murmur, and it’s not a happy murmur.’ I had no idea! I had no symptoms until then,” she said.
“I called my family doctor and went to see him. He said, ‘You have a murmur!’ My doctor was shocked, I was shocked.”
Gamey was diagnosed with a heart valve disease called aortic stenosis. It is a life-threatening condition in which the aortic valve narrows, and blood cannot flow normally. Her valve replacement surgery kept her in St. Boniface Hospital for nine days, and she made a full recovery.
Not a lot is known about aortic stenosis, especially in women, noted Dr. Inna Rabinovich-Nikitin, a Principal Investigator with the Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences at the Hospital.
“It can be inherited, it can be a complication from another disease, usually an infectious disease. But we don’t yet understand the reasons for that,” said Rabinovich-Nikitin.
Payworks offered to increase gift amount
“It’s important to Payworks to support the communities our staff live and work in,” said Heather Reid, Community Engagement and Events Specialist at Payworks, about the company’s gift.
“As Barb mentioned, more than half of our staff are women, and the majority are based in Winnipeg. It is important to support causes that affect our people, like women’s heart health,” she said.
“Everyone knows someone in their lives who had a cardiac event,” added Amanda Soloway, Senior Manager of Marketing at Payworks. “We know that Barb experienced one. So, supporting the research initiative at St. B was important to us, and to many in our organization who have personal stories about heart disease in women they love.”
Payworks generously offered more than the amount the Foundation had originally approached the company with for support. “The main reason for that was, we saw the need,” said Reid.
“We can pay it forward in many ways, one of them being financial. Because it does impact so many of us, we thought, we can do more here.”
Research gap exists between the sexes
Contributions from companies like Payworks allow the Hospital to develop world-class research initiatives such as women’s heart health, said Dr. Lorrie Kirshenbaum, Director of the Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences at the Hospital.
“Women typically develop different forms of heart disease than men,” said Kirshenbaum.
“Largely, the clinical trials done many years ago were done predominantly on men. We are learning that women present differently – they have different symptoms and different heart disease than men. We can’t take a cookie-cutter approach to treating women,” he said.
“I am proud to champion women’s heart health research, steward the contribution, and make sure something positive comes of it. It’s only possible because of Payworks and others who contribute to the initiative. So, we thank them.”
Help Cardiac Sciences St. Boniface Hospital to provide excellent cardiac care and pursue groundbreaking cardiac research. Give today.