A kind heart in the Kāpiti Coast

Published: 11 November 2025

Joan is taking part in the Big Heart Appeal street collection this coming February to prevent others from going through a heart attack like her own.

In 2021, Joan was visiting Queenstown with a friend and they decided to walk the Tiki Trail up to Bob’s Peak. While a short hike, it’s of moderate intensity, and Joan soon began to feel very uncomfortable.

“It was terrible,” she recalls. “I thought I was dying on the way up. I could hardly breathe and my legs would occasionally stop working. Still, at this point, I had no idea it was a hitch in my heart.”

Joan pressed onward and made it to the top, where her symptoms all but disappeared. She put it all down to the hike being particularly difficult, but over the next month, her symptoms would continue to pop up.

“I decided to go to my GP after experiencing some pretty horrible indigestion,” says Joan. “I had an ECG, but the results were unclear. I went home and thought I’d just keep an eye on it. Two weeks later, the pain was back and I knew something wasn’t right.”

She returned to her GP for another ECG – and that’s when her doctor said she needed to go straight to the hospital. After a short wait in the emergency department, it was revealed that she had sadly experienced a heart attack.

It was this personal experience that led her to get involved as a volunteer street collector in the Big Heart Appeal.

“For me, it’s all about education. Whether that’s educating people so they can avoid having a heart attack or funding more research for professionals,” says Joan. “The more we find out, the more we can prevent these things from happening. It’s also incredible to have new ways of treating heart disease. Look at how much of an improvement it is to have angiograms and keyhole procedures versus open-heart surgeries. Research is always looking for better ways to do things.”

She can’t stress enough how helpful the Heart Foundation resources were for her during her recovery.

“It’s very important for me to support the Heart Foundation after what I’ve been through. I encourage others to do the same. Volunteering is a good way to feel useful and know that you’re helping other New Zealanders.”