Heart Attack

*From the Heart and Stroke Foundation

• 1 in 4 Canadians will contract some form of heart disease
• 75,000 Canadians suffer heart attacks each year
• Heart disease costs the Canadian economy approximately $19 billion every year in medical services, hospitalization expenses, loss of income and loss of productivity
• The rate of death among patients hospitalized for heart attacks has been decreased by half, from 16% to 8%
• 1 in 2 heart attack victims is under age 65

Stroke

*From the Heart and Stroke Foundation 

• 50,000 Canadians suffer a stroke each year
• 75% survive the initial event
• Strokes are the leading cause of neurological disability
• One-Third of stroke victims are under the age of 65
• 60% of stroke victims will be left with a disability

Multiple Sclerosis (MS)

*From the Multiple Sclerosis Society of Canada

• More than 50,000 Canadians have Multiple Sclerosis (MS)
• Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is the most common neurological disease among young Canadians
• have one of the highest rates of MS in the world
• Women are twice as likely to develop MS as men

Parkinson's Disease

*From the Parkinson Society Canada

• 30% of all Parkinson's patients are under the age of 50
• 20% of all Parkinson's patients are under the age of 40
• Approximately 80,000 to 100,000 Canadians are suffering from Parkinson's Disease

Paralysis

*From the National Spinal Cord Injury Association of Canada

• Each year an estimated 900 Canadians sustain a spinal cord injury
• Over 30,000 Canadians suffer from paralysis of 2 or more limbs
• Most persons who suffer spinal cord injury are between 16 and 30 years of age
• The most common causes of spinal cord injury are car collisions and falls

Cancer

*From the Canadian Cancer Society

• More than 130,000 Canadians will be diagnosed with cancer this year
• Over 60,000 people in Canada will die this year from the disease
• 1 in 3 Canadians will develop cancer in their lifetime
• 1 in 9 women will develop breast cancer
• 1 in 3 women and 1 in 2.5 men will develop cancer in their lifetime.

Coronary Artery Bypass Surgery

*From the Heart and Stroke Foundation

• Bypass surgery is performed more often on men than women by a ratio of nearly 4 to 1
• Approximately 11,000 bypass surgeries are performed in Canada each year
• The rate at which bypass surgery is performed on people age 65 and older has increased

Alzheimer's Disease

*From the Alzheimer Society of Canada 

• Alzheimer's Disease is the fourth leading cause of death in Canada
• Every year approximately 10,000 Canadians die from Alzheimer's
• Approximately 1 in 100 Canadians suffer from Alzheimer's disease
• There are approximately 22,000 people in Metro Toronto with Alzheimer's Disease
• The disease occurs in 8% of the general population over 60

Kidney Failure

*From the Kidney Foundation of Canada

• Kidney disease ranks sixth among diseases causing death in Canada
• Each day an average of 8 Canadians learn that their kidneys have failed
• Approximately 2000 Canadians are on a waiting list for kidney transplant
• 351 kidney transplants were performed in Ontario in 1995
• 1 in 10 will develop kidney stones at some point in their lives

Deafness

*From the Canadian Hearing Society 

• 280,000 Canadians are deaf
• 1,120,000 Canadians are hard of hearing
• 1,400,000 do not use amplification There are more than 2,800,000 Canadians suffering from hearing loss

Occupational HIV

*From the Canadian Aids Society 

• Approximately 4.4 million health care workers suffer 800,000 needle sticks and other injuries from sharp objects annually
• An estimated 16,000 of these objects are contaminated with HIV