Laid up and recovering from knee surgery, Wahanui Kaaka received a phone call which changed his life.
He’d won a brand new house in a charity fundraiser.
In March, the Hamilton-based 66-year-old became the 139th winner of a fully-furnished new home through the Heart Foundation Lottery.
For Kaaka, donating to the fundraiser wasn’t just personal – it was spiritual.
He lost both his parents to heart attacks. His father was just 55.
So, after hearing his dad’s voice say “go for it, my boy”, Kaaka bought tickets.
More than 175,000 New Zealanders are living with heart disease.
Almost 1 in 3 deaths in Aotearoa are caused by cardiovascular disease and it is the leading cause of death in Kiwi women. Someone dies from heart disease every 90 minutes, many of which are premature and preventable.
When Kaaka got the call telling him he’d won a four-bedroom home in Pāpāmoa, “I just yelled ‘Yes!’”.
Wife Cathy was “gobsmacked” and friends thought it was a hoax until Kaaka sent a photo of them receiving the keys.
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In the 30 years it has been running, the lottery has helped the Heart Foundation to invest more than $90 million in heart research to date.
The Kaakas, with their four children and five mokopuna, use the house as a weekend getaway and look forward to spending this Christmas there for the first time.
Kaaka continues to support the fundraiser: “It was really important to me to give back to the Heart Foundation to help prevent others from losing their loved ones, and it was a bonus if I won something.”
The lottery started in 1993, with a decision to buy and raffle a new home in Pauanui to fundraise.
Today, the foundation runs seven lotteries annually, with prize homes sponsored by Jennian and partners.
All proceeds go towards life-saving heart research, specialist overseas training for Kiwi cardiologists, heart health education programmes and support programmes for those affected by heart disease.
The lottery has helped the Heart Foundation invest more than $90 million in research.
The latest lottery has the grand prize of a $1m home in Auckland’s Clarks Beach.
Once a winner takes possession of a house, it’s theirs to do what they want: some sell it, others move in, or use it as a holiday home.
One researcher whose work is supported by funding from the lottery is Dr Julia Shanks, who last year was awarded a three-year Heart Foundation grant to undertake a pre-clinical assessment of a new pacemaker, designed to vary heart rate in response to breathing.
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John Bryan was told last year he would not get a vital heart operation until June – and his wife Carol picketed Christchurch Hospital over fears he would not live that long. He has since had the surgery and is recovering.
The heart doesn’t beat at a fixed rate, it constantly changes to adapt to the body’s needs.
Shanks’ research is looking into how heart-rate changes with breathing. If you breathe in, your heart-rate speeds up, and slows down as you breathe out.
Not all normal pacemakers do this.
Shanks is developing and testing a new cardiac pacing paradigm, to pace the heart in a different and – its hoped – more natural way.
“Our research has already shown that using a pacemaker that mimics a healthy heart dramatically improves the heart function and structure in heart failure,” Shanks said.
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Researcher Dr Julia Shanks is working on a new kind of pacemaker, under development by researchers at the University of Auckland.
“We are now examining how it can improve the function of those already taking medication for heart failure, together with how it might improve exercise ability and impact blood flow to muscles and the kidneys.”
While their work is still in large animal models, they’ve seen some “really awesome” results, ahead of initial safety trials in people planned for 2024.
Shanks says they hope an improved pacemaker could ultimately improve the lives of those with heart failure.
Such as someone like Tanya Neeley.
Neeley started experiencing the odd fast heartbeat and palpitations as a teen, but put them down to anxiety.
Her mum – who had a heart condition and a pacemaker – died at 48, when she was 23. Her mum’s mum also died suddenly, washing the dishes, aged just 40.
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Tanya Neeley, 48, says she is “completely reliant” on a pacemaker to live.
After losing her mother, Neeley had her heart checked out, but nothing out of the ordinary was picked up, she said.
After having her sons, Fynn and Cooper, she started experiencing some tachycardia – increased heart-rate – and “severe” palpitations.
At just 35, with a 2 and 4-year-old, Neeley’s cardiologist decided she needed an implantable cardioverter defibrillator and a pacemaker.
Pacemakers send electrical pulses to help the heart beat at a normal rate and rhythm. They can also be used to help the heart chambers beat in sync, so the heart can pump blood more efficiently.
After genetic testing, Neeley was diagnosed with familial dilated cardiomyopathy: when the muscle in the heart’s chambers weakens, stopping the heart working efficiently.
It ultimately results in heart failure. For some, the first symptom is sudden cardiac death.
Now 48, Neeley is “completely reliant” on her pacemaker to keep her heart pumping, as she suffers from complete heart block: when the electrical signal can’t pass from the heart’s upper chambers to the lower chambers.
BRUCE MACKAY/The Post
Tanya and her two sons share a gene mutation which predisposes them to get familial dilated cardiomyopathy, pictured with her eldest son Fynn.
Cardiomyopathy leaves her feeling “insanely fatigued”, so hills and stairs can be challenging.
But with the change to a more modern pacemaker two months ago, which causes more stable, powerful contractions, it’s expected her life expectancy and quality of life will improve, as her heart can pump more effectively.
Neeley says research undertaken through Heart Foundation funding, such as Shanks’ work looking at a new pacemaker “would be really significant” for someone like her, and those who may need similar support in the future.
Both Fynn, 17, and Cooper, 15, have also been diagnosed with heart issues. Each has a cardiac monitor, about the size of a USB drive, fitted in their chest.
Neeley hopes that advances in technology and ongoing research efforts will mean her boys will have even better outcomes than she has, or her mum had, and ultimately it “won’t impact their lives too much”.
