When Salty Sisters team captain Lena heard that Coastrek would be supporting the Heart Foundation she knew this was something she had to do, having tragically lost her brother to a heart attack last year.
“I contacted the girls and they were in straight away. It’s been great to have a team of good friends to train together – it’s fun and it keeps you accountable and obviously it’s a cause I really care about,” says Lena.
Teammate Oksana was a nurse for 30 years and found herself so busy looking after others that her own health started to suffer. She had high blood pressure and felt the impact of stress and found the best remedy was exercise.
“Lots of people underestimate high blood pressure because you don’t necessarily feel it, but walking is one of the best things you can do for it.”
Fellow team member, Mel is a Pilates instructor and says it’s vital that people are educated about their hearts:
“To bring awareness about maintaining your heart health and the warning signs you should be looking for is something we will be sharing with everyone. If our heart doesn’t work, we don’t work!”
The team have found their upcoming venture has sparked conversations with others around health.
“We’ve had people tell us when they found out about us doing the trek and why that it opened up conversations with their family, which we are really pleased about,” says Lena.
The Fleurieu Peninsula based team are fortunate to be training on the Coastrek route with fourth team member, Karen joining them from Adelaide for event day.
