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Wednesday, January 5, 2000 THE OAKVILLE BEAVER B1 Your Ultimate Oakville Website LivinginOakville.com OFFICIAL MEDIA SPONSOR O F T H E OAKVILLE WATERFRONT FESTIVAL Focus FOURTH LINE AUTO For A ll Your Car's Needs Drive Clean Emission Testing Government Safety Inspection O A K V 'U n fe l | | C N T A E iO Tu ne -U ps · Brakes · Exhaust · Cooling Systems CA A Approved Shop |Z 4 559 Speers Road 8 4 2 -3 0 0 1 In Business in Oakville Since 1979 Oakville Beaver Focus Editor: WILMA BLOKHUIS 845-3824 Ext: 250; Fax: 337-5567; Email: blokhuis@haltonsearch.com 7fe e l great' si Person-to-Person aims to raise $75 ,000 in Oakville Person-to-Person, the Heart and Stroke Foundation's annual door-to-door canvassing campaign, is looking for 100 new volunteers to help raise $75,000 in Oakville. Person-to-Person is the H eart and Stroke Foundation of Ontario's major fundraising cam paign held annually in February. Provincially, 100 chapters raised $5 million last year. The Oakville chapter raised $65,000, a 70% increase over the previous year. Last year's door-to-door campaign saw a turn around in its decline due to a lack of volunteers, and recruited 325 canvassers who covered 460 streets across town. This year's goal of $75,000 represents a 15% increase "so we will need to retain all of our vol unteers from last year and recruit 100 new volun teers to hit our goal," says Oakville chapter cam paign chair Paul Sneddon. "However, even covering 460 streets is only 25% of the ever growing Oakville community. "Generally speaking we have a very generous community in Oakville but the success of the cam paign reflects directly on the number of volunteers who turn out to canvass." If interested in volunteering as a canvasser, call M ichelle Wilson at the Heart and Stroke Foundation office at 634-7732. Photo by Barrie Erskine David MacLachlan appears fit and healthy following his sec ond open heart surgery in July. His first was 25 years ago. David MacLachlan is alive and well after spending much of last year in and out of hospital. "People ask me what I've done in 1999, and I tell them I was in the hospital.. . "I feel just great." Twenty five years after suf fering his first heart attack and undergoing a triple bypass at age 49, he required a quadruple bypass and found himself in the hospital with John Graham, who had two heart surgeries four days apart. "John was in bad shape," reflected MacLachlan. "Our wives would visit back and forth. John's wife, Judy, would also visit me, and my wife Jean would visit John." The Grahams and MacLachlans have known each other for 15 years, ever since the MacLachlans moved to Oakville from Sarnia and saw Graham about educational concerns while he was still with the Halton District School Board. Their friendship was rein forced in the Toronto General last July, and both are ardent supporters of the Heart and Stroke Foundation. (S e e 'S eco n d opinion . . p ag e B3) 1Ivo open heart surgeries in one meek Stories by Wilma Blokhuis BEAVER FOCUS EDITOR John Graham thanks his lucky stars - and the Heart and Stroke Foundation - for being alive today. The retired educator and former local councillor underwent two heart surgeries in July. The first was a quin tuple bypass. The second open heart surgery to remove an aneurysm came four days later. "It was nip and tuck for awhile," he muses, recovering at his new North Oakville home. Graham, 69, says his recovery is slow, but steady. "After my six years on council, the Heart and Stroke Foundation asked me to help them out with their Oakville Chapter in 1992, and I said yes," said Graham, never expecting at the time he would someday benefit from its service and research. "They asked me to serve as presi dent. There's nothing like starting at the top." He served in that capacity for two years, then joined the Heart and Stroke Foundation's provincial development committee for three years. It's aim is to strengthen the organization's 100 chap ters. "Here I've worked for five years, never expecting to be a beneficiary of the Heart and Stroke Foundation." Graham, a life-long non-smoker, admits he was prone to having heart disease. "Heart related diseases are a family vulnerability." Not feeling very well one day early last July, Graham asked his wife Judy to take him to the hospital. Oakville Trafalgar Memorial Hospital sent him to Toronto General where his two surg eries were performed. Graham had suf fered a `silent heart attack,' and after that first surgery, suffered a second car diac arrest because an aneurysm had developed inside his heart, resulting in some damage. "I had what they call a `silent heart attack.' I had no pain. Women tend to have this kind of heart attack more than men. "It happened on a Sunday. We were to have guests over for dinner, and I said to Judy that I didn't feel well enough to face dinner with guests, and I asked her to take me to the hospital, because I had never felt this way before. "I should have known I had a heart problem . . . I should have anticipated it," said Graham, listing such reasons as having a family history, being male, having high blood pressure, being dia betic and being slightly overweight. "The one thing I had going for me is that I never smoked." He also attributes the heart attack to the stress of moving to a smaller house. "We m oved after 30 years on Dalewood Drive," said Graham, noting moving is a major stress factor in a per son's life - especially after many years at the same address. "It's been said that moving is more stressful than losing your wife." Since joining the foundation, he's canvassed door to door every February. This year, he regrets he is not able to. Graham said the money goes to the production of the HeartSmart cook books, education and materials "to make people aware of the need to keep fit through exercising or walking, eat ing a sensible diet, watching their weight, and not smoking. "A lot of money also goes to research, and to assist young doctors in training," he concluded. Photo by Peter C. McCusker John Graham X C A N A D IA N M E N T A L H E A LTH A S S O C IA T IO N L'A S S O C IA T IO N C A N A D IE N N E PO UR L A S A N TE M EN TALE HALTON REG IO N , BRANCH, P R E S E N T S PARENTING THROUGH DIVORCE; AVOID THE PITFALLS A 6-week parenting course looking at the issues affecting families going through a separation. Topics to be addressed: affect of divorce on children at different stages of their development legal aspects of separation related to children; custody, child support etc. building/maintaining your child's self-esteem communication w ith y our ex. around parenting new relationships/remarriage/blended families The course is a combination lecture and discussion group conducted by instructor/counsellor Blythe Ward, M.Ed. LOCATION: Oakville-Parent Child Center, 341 Kerr S t, Oakville DATE: Tuesdays, February 1 -March 7 TIME: 7:30-9:30 FOR INFO OR TO REGISTER, CALL (905) 693-4270 FEE: $65.00 (FLEXIBLE PAYMENT P U N S AVAILABLE) t m /e /// t/e < //W/e S I D E W A L K SALE January 12-16 427 A N D THE Q U E E N S W A Y OVER 220 E X C L U S I V E S T O R E S A N D S E R V I C E S FOR I N F O R M A T I O N : ( 4 1 6 ) 621- 1070 SHERWAY GA