PACE is a Heart Rhythm Information and Support Organisation aiming to   ‘Prevent Arrhythmic Cardiac Events’ that can lead to sudden death in apparently healthy, young and often fit sports people.
                             
INFORMATION &
SUPPORT GROUPS:

Johannesburg

Pretoria

Tygerberg

Cape Town
Saturday 6 March

Bloemfontein

Durban
Friday 13 March 

East London

Call 082 6999 699 for further information.

 

New Website
We are in the process of revamping the PACE
Website, and would appreciate your patience
during this transitional phase of the site.

Should you be requiring information that is missing, please call 082 6999 699 for assistance.

Thank you for your support and understanding.

A WINNING RESULT

On 17 January a team of athletes, sporting their PACE gear, successfully completed the Iron Man challenge, raising awareness and much needed funds towards the Patient Support Fund.

More than R20 000 was raised through donations, sponsorships and the outfit value, which goes towards the sum total of R45 000 to be used for life changing treatment or devices for arrhythmia patients.

Thanks to the hard work and enthusiasm of Leshane and Bruce, who sourced the sponsored outfits, arranged dinners for the athletes and secured great media exposure! 
 
The PACE Team stood out from the crowds, in their eye-catching outfits and did a great job of getting the word out there on arrhythmia and PACE.

With regards to fundraising, a special mention must go to Brizi Coetzer, Mark Rowles and Chantelle Blake. Thank you. The back-a-buddy site raised around R 9 000 and more is still coming in. 
 
PACE wholeheartedly thanks the entire team and everyone who was involved in raising funds and creating awareness for PACE.















East London Support Group Meeting Notice
The East London branch of PACE would like to invite all patients with ICDs, pacemakers, anyone with a heart rhythm disorder, their family members or anyone interested to attend the first meeting of the New Year.

The meeting will take place on the 15th January 2010 from 18h30 – 19h30 at the Conference Room at the Life St. Dominic Hospital.

Lusan Luscombe, PACE CEO will introduce the guest speaker, Prof. AO Okreglicki (Cardiologist and Electrophysiologist), a heart rhythm specialist, who will present on “Arrhythmia”.

For further information or to confirm, please contact Sanet on 083 650 1307 before the 12th January 2010.

Durban Support Group Meeting: Report Back
The Durban PACE group were very fortunate to have a presentation prepared by Danielle Freid from Medtronic in Jhb. This was really a worthwhile presentation and the knowledge of the speaker was extensive. A special thanks to those who took the time and effort to attend in the awful weather that Durban was experiencing ! Attendance was not as good as we were hoping for, and we really rely on people attending these meetings as all speakers have done so at their own time and expense. So, we are really hoping for additional support in 2010.

Danielle did a very detailed and graphic presentation of the heart functions, conditions, placement and functioning of devices (pacemakers, ICD’s) etc. Danielle was also able to answer many questions from the group and everybody left with a much better understanding in many areas.

Danielle also welcomed people to contact her (or the area representative) should they have any queries with their devices or arrhythmia concerns.

We would like to thank Danielle Freid, William Stranix and Medtronic for their support of PACE, both from a time and financial perspective. And of course eThekwini Hospital (in particular Jenny and Mariann) for allowing us to host our meetings with such excellent facilities !

Thanks to you all and we hope 2010 will bring continued support for all those affected with heart rhythm conditions !

Preliminary meeting dates for 2010 in Durban are as follows :
Friday 12 March 2010
Friday 23 July 2010
Friday 19 November 2010

Cape Town Support Group Meeting: Report Back

 The Cape Town Support Group ended        off the year with another great talk by Prof  AO.  With more than 40 people attending, we are very pleased to be advancing much of PACE's goals of awareness, support and prevention!

During the talk we learnt about ICD's, pacemakers, heart attacks, cardiac arrests, how the heart works and the latest medical treatments such as remote monitoring where remote devices send a report to your doctor while you are asleep!
 
The importance of an AED (Automatic External Defibrillator), when someone collapses, was once again stressed and any call for an ambulance should include a demand for an AED.  When the heart is in ventricular fibrillation and does not pump blood around the body, only an AED will correct the heart's rhythm.
 
Netcare were the kind sponsors and we look forward to our meetings next year!  Look out for the calendar and updates on the website and don’t hesitate to contact PACE with any questions on 082 6999 699. 

We are also always in need of volunteers to assist us with our efforts.
 


CHECK OUT OUR LATEST NEWSLETTER!!
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Johannesburg Support Group Meeting - Report Back
The group held the last meeting for 2009 at the Sans Souci Hotel at Milpark Hospital on Saturday 14 November 2009.

The meeting was attended by 32 people of among whom  were three new members. The youngest of which was Gavin Jones (19), who had his implant in August 2009. He could not attend the August meeting, as that weekend he was re-admitted, to have the leads reset as they had come loose.

The speaker was a Mrs. Helen Joughin, a physiotherapist, who spoke on Cardiac Rehabilitation Exercise – Why, How and When of Exercise.

Helen is well qualified in this subject, as she worked in the Johannesburg City Cardiac Rehabilitation Clinic for many years and eventually became the head of this unit.

Helen posed several questions on why we should exercise and the benefits to be gained, as well as the amount of exercise.  To ensure that the heart rate is not exceeded during exercise, she advised that we should ask our Cardiologists, what our upper threshold heart rate is, and not to exceed this rate.

The meeting also discussed future possible topics for discussion, among these, were a request for Dr. Obel to speak again, Lusan Luscombe on PACE, and the possibility of a psychologist to speak on stress and anxiety.

The next meeting of the group will be held on Saturday 13 February 2010.


PACE at the South African Heart Association Congress - Sun City 

PACE once again had a very successful awareness and educational campaign at the South African Heart Association Congress at Sun City (SAHA 2009).

PACE gave two presentations and had a fantastic stand next to the registration, which ensured good exposure. We displayed our new banner up, some posters, our new brochures and tons of literature. We even had a competition where PACE t-shirts could be won! Volunteers Juliet Rogan and Althea Goosen were kept very busy informing visitors, answering questions and making notes.


Says Juliet Rogan, “There were a number of ‘new’ faces at SAHA which meant further exposure for PACE.  Many of these were nurses and technicians and when they realized what PACE was about, were very pleased about the existence of such an organization.  On the other hand, it was also very pleasing that a number of people who came to the stand ‘had heard of PACE’, which means that word is getting around of the existence of PACE!"

Many requests and actions resulted from the Congress:
-  Contacts were established in various previously unattainable prominent 
   hospitals, like Umhlanga Hospital, St Anne’s Hospital (Pietermaritzburg)
   and Entabeni Hospital (Durban), while other contacts included various
   laboratories and technicians.
-  There also were many requests for patient literature from Medi-Clinic
   (Pietermaritzburg), Entabeni Hospital and various other hospitals 
   throughout the country, and presentations in DVD format, focusing on
   basic heart functioning, were also in great need.
-  Support groups were also in demand, with requests from Pietermaritzburg,
   East London and Polokwani amongst others. It was wonderful though, to
   be able to provide people with contact details for existing support groups!
 
Participation at the Congress certainly created a great opportunity for arrhythmia education as well as assessing arrhythmia care needs in South Africa. We look forward to addressing these needs in the near future!