SMB walk to honour heart warrior

The Governor Martyn Roper and Deputy Governor Franz Manderson were among a legion of heart warriors who took to Seven Mile Beach last Sunday morning, walking the Heart Warriors & Angels Beach Walk to raise funds for Team Nolan in honour of Congenital Heart Defects (CHD) Awareness Week 2020. The walk was also to honour the memory of seven-month old baby Nolan Evans, who passed away early last year, losing his battle with a complex congenital heart disease known as Truncus Arteriosus.

The Team Nolan Pediatric Programme is the Pediatric Arm of the Cayman Heart Fund and is a not-for profit that was inspired by the courage of baby Nolan and established by his parents, Sean and Ailian Evans.

Ailian said they were extremely grateful to the scores of people who lent their support to the event last Sunday.

“We are very grateful to all of our wonderful supporters, including His Excellency Governor Martyn Roper, the Deputy Governor Honorable Franz Manderson, all of our volunteers, our sponsors and the over 250 participants in today’s beach walk. All of this support culminated in today’s event being extremely successful in meeting all of Team Nolan’s targets,” she said.

The mission of Team Nolan is to raise awareness in Cayman for congenital heart disease and to financially assist local families with CHD babies, through fundraising efforts such as the annual Heart Warriors & Angels Beach Walk and Kidfest events. In June 2019, Team Nolan donated the Nolan Evans Memorial Bench to Health City’s main lobby, which illustrates CHD awareness messages for all to see when passing through the hospital’s lobby, Ailian advised.

In October of 2019, Team Nolan was able to cover the full cost of the purchase of a critically needed infant transport incubator for the Health Services Authority’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. In December 2019, Team Nolan presented a substantial donation of financial support to a family in need, helping out the family of baby Mirella who was born with a critical congenital heart defect Tetralogy of Fallot and who was hospitalised for over four months at Health City.

“Most CHD children don’t look sick,” Ailian said. “Sometimes you can’t tell them apart from other kids but their scars are very real!! Beneath their shirts are battle scars... constant reminders of their battles to live.”