Charleston, South Carolina · September 17 – November 4, 2026

One in three.

That's the share of all human deaths caused by cardiovascular disease. 19.8 million people in 2022. More than twice the toll of every cancer combined.

I'm John Hoekman. I've been nominated as a 2026 Leader of Impact for the American Heart Association here in Charleston. Seven weeks to raise $44,000 for cardiovascular research, prevention and CPR education.

One day after this started, I lost a friend of 30 years to a heart attack. Here's why that changed the ask.

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You're invited · October 27 A happy hour with heart. Tuesday, 4:30 to 6:30 PM at By the Way, Charleston. Hors d'oeuvres and open bar.
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The scale of it

No disease on earth kills more people, and it isn't close.

Heart disease has been the leading cause of death in the United States nearly every year since 1921. It still is. Worldwide, it kills more than cancer and chronic respiratory disease put together.

19.8M People killed by cardiovascular disease in a single year. 32% of all deaths on earth. WHO, 2022 data
34 sec How often someone in the United States dies of cardiovascular disease. 915,973 deaths in 2023. AHA 2026 Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics Update
2× Global cardiovascular deaths run more than double the 9.7 million from all cancers combined. WHO / IARC GLOBOCAN, 2022
2M Major cardiovascular events that could be prevented every year if American adults reached optimal cardiovascular health. AHA 2026 Statistical Update

That last number is the one worth sitting with. It's the Association's own modeling, and it turns a death toll into an addressable gap. Two million events a year, already on the table, waiting on screening and behavior rather than on a discovery nobody has made yet.

Where the money goes

America spends $5.3 trillion a year on health, and almost none of it on staying healthy.

Hospitals took $1.63 trillion in 2024. Physician and clinical services took $1.11 trillion. Together that's more than half of everything. Public health, the entire national effort to stop disease before it starts, took 3%.

US national health expenditure, 2024 · $5.3 trillion

Hospital care, $1.63T Physician and clinical services, $1.11T Drugs, nursing, home health, admin, the rest Public health, 3%

I've spent 10 years building and investing in companies on the prevention side of this, so I'll say the quiet part: that red sliver is a business decision, not a scientific limit. We know what causes most cardiovascular death. We fund the repair and starve the prevention, then act surprised at the bill.

Federal public health spending actually fell in 2024, from $37.9 billion to $35.5 billion.

The years you actually get

Americans live 76 years and spend 12 of them sick.

Life expectancy is the number everyone quotes. Health-adjusted life expectancy is the number that matters, and the gap between them is where cardiovascular disease does its real damage. The United States has the widest gap of any country on earth.

76.4 Years an American can expect to live. WHO Global Health Observatory, 2021
63.9 Years an American can expect to live in good health. WHO Global Health Observatory, 2021
12.5 Lost years. 16% of a lifetime, and the widest healthspan gap among all 183 WHO member states. Garmany & Terzic, JAMA Network Open, 2024
93% Of Americans 65 and older live with at least one chronic condition. 79% live with two or more. Watson et al., Preventing Chronic Disease, 2025

Most of those lost years aren't a mystery either. In a study following 23,153 adults, people who never smoked, kept a BMI under 30, exercised 3.5 hours a week and ate reasonably had a 78% lower risk of developing a major chronic disease. Fewer than 9% of people had all four. (Ford et al., Archives of Internal Medicine, 2009.)

Close to home

South Carolina is losing on the risk factor that's easiest to fix.

High blood pressure is the largest modifiable driver of both heart attack and stroke. Cheap to find, cheap to treat. This state ranks 42nd out of 50 on it.

175.0 South Carolina heart disease deaths per 100,000, against a national rate of 157.6. KFF / CDC, 2024
38.9% Of South Carolina adults have been told they have high blood pressure. The country runs 34.0%. America's Health Rankings, 2023
12,494 South Carolinians died of heart disease in a single year. KFF / CDC, 2024
2 in 5 Black adults in South Carolina have high blood pressure. Heart disease killed 3,011 of them in 2020. SC DHEC, via USC Institute for Cardiovascular Disease Research

Why me

My grandmother lived to 100. So did all of her sisters.

Every one of them. My parents are 85, and they moved into assisted living in Michigan last fall, both healthy and both sharp.

So when I talk about the difference between how long you live and how long you live well, it isn't theoretical for me. It's the family business.

I've also had a shoulder replaced, a hip replaced, 3 knee surgeries and a cervical fusion. Hockey and skiing wrote most of that bill. Which is a long way of saying I've spent a lot of time inside American healthcare on the repair side, and the last 10 years building and investing in companies on the prevention side.

Prevention is the better business. It's also the one we underfund by an order of magnitude.

None of the numbers on this page require a breakthrough to move. Blood pressure gets caught at a screening. A bystander who knows CPR changes what happens in the 8 minutes before the ambulance arrives. It's all unglamorous and none of it is expensive, which is exactly what makes the gap so frustrating to look at.

That's the whole reason I said yes.

John HoekmanCharleston, SC

September 18

This campaign was one day old when my friend died.

Heart attack. He was 30 years of my life.

Put him on a fishing boat and he came unhinged. Fish rippling the surface and he'd be running from one end of it to the other like he'd never seen a fish before. Every time he saw one it was his first time all over again. Like a kid in a candy store, wide-eyed and beaming ear to ear.

He asked real questions. Four minutes into a conversation with someone he'd just met and he'd be somewhere most people never get with their oldest friends. He could put a room together out of people who had no business being in the same room, different ages, different backgrounds, different politics, and they'd all leave liking each other.

And he was always inviting me somewhere. Fishing in Nantucket, skiing in Colorado, or wherever he was headed. Almost every phone call ended with come with me.

He's the one in three at the top of this page. He wasn't a statistic when I woke up that morning.

So I'm asking for two things now.

Give, if you're able. It funds the research, the screenings and the CPR training, and 100% of it goes to the American Heart Association.

Then go do the thing you've been putting off. Get your blood pressure checked, which costs nothing. If heart disease runs in your family, ask your doctor for two tests that don't come on a standard panel: Lp(a) and ApoB. Lp(a) is genetic and once in your life is usually enough. Ask about a coronary calcium score too. It's a quick CT that can see plaque sitting in your arteries years before anything hurts.

Learn CPR while you're at it. It takes about 90 minutes.

I would rather you did all of that than gave me a dollar.

I've left his name off this page for now, at my own discretion and out of respect for his family.

The math

Here's exactly how $44,000 gets built.

I'd rather show you the arithmetic than tell you every gift matters. Both are true. Only one is useful.

Seven weeks · September 17 to November 4
GiftNeededSubtotalWhat it does for the campaign
$7,5002$15,000 Corporate sponsorship. Includes a table of 10 at the Heart Ball. Two of these is a third of the goal.
$5,0002$10,000 Corvitae Society. The Association's giving society, and the gifts that make the target believable in week 1 instead of week 6.
$1,00010$10,000 Open Your Heart. 100% tax deductible at this level, and the level most likely to be doubled by an employer match.
$25024$6,000 The backbone. Twenty-four of these takes about a minute each.
$5060$3,000 Sixty people who each forward this to one other person is worth more than any single check on this list.
Total98 gifts$44,000Seven weeks. 49 days. Two gifts a day.

Ask your employer whether they match charitable gifts. Most matching programs take about 5 minutes on an internal portal, and they double what you just did at no additional cost to you.

Ways to give

Five levels, and more ways to pay than most people realize.

Every one of these is processed and receipted by the American Heart Association. Pick whichever is easiest on your side.

$10,000Corporate sponsorship with recognitionA table of 10 at the Heart Ball plus logo placement. The full package.
$7,500Corporate sponsorshipA table of 10 at the Heart Ball. Can be split into halves at $3,750 if the timing works better that way.
$5,000Corvitae SocietyThe Association's giving society. This is the entry level, and it goes up from there.
$1,000Open Your Heart100% tax deductible at this level and above.
AnyWhatever works$50 takes about a minute online and it counts exactly the same toward the campaign.
OnlineCard, Venmo, Apple Pay, or Google Pay, straight through the donation page.
Donor advised fundDAF option built into the page. Only needs to be initiated before November 4, not settled.
Check or ACHChecks payable to American Heart Association with my name in the memo line.
Employer matchDoubles your gift at no extra cost to you. Start early, it runs through a national team.
On matching gifts, start now rather than later. They're handled by a separate national team with their own turnaround, and the confirmation has to be in before November 4. If your company has a program, send me the details and I'll walk it through for you. It's the cheapest way to double what you give and most people never check.

Three ways in

Give, join, or open a door.

Give

Card, Venmo, Apple Pay, Google Pay, or a grant from your donor advised fund. The page opens for donations on September 17 at 9:00 AM and closes November 4 at 9:00 PM. No exceptions on either end.

Donation page

Join the team

You get your own page and ask 15 people you already know. Seven weeks, maybe an hour a week. I'm not asking you for a check. I'm asking you for a room I can't get into myself.

Team page

Host a night

Two events are planned for October, one at my house and one with a Charleston restaurant partner. If you'd host a third, or fill a table at one of ours, that's the highest-leverage help on this page.

john@rayerose.com

Mechanics

The practical answers.

Where does the money actually go?
Every dollar goes to the American Heart Association. This page is mine; the donation page it sends you to is theirs, and your gift is processed and receipted by the Association directly. I never touch the money.
Is my gift tax deductible?
Gifts of $1,000 and above are 100% tax deductible. For smaller gifts, the Association's receipt will state the deductible amount. Checks should be payable to American Heart Association, with my name in the memo line so it's credited to this campaign.
Can I give from a donor advised fund or an IRA?
Yes to both. There's a DAF option built into the donation page, which is the simplest route. If you'd rather run it through your fund directly, or make a qualified charitable distribution from an IRA, email me and I'll walk it through with your advisor. A DAF gift only needs to be initiated before November 4, not settled.
Does my employer match count?
It does, and it's the cheapest way to double your gift. Matching gifts run through a separate national team at the Association, so start early rather than in the last week. Send me your company's confirmation details and I'll route it and chase it down. It has to be confirmed before November 4 to count.
Can I give before September 17?
No. The campaign rules are strict about this and I'd rather tell you plainly than lose the gift. Nothing counts before 9:00 AM on September 17, and checks dated earlier can't be credited at all. If you want to commit now, email me and I'll send the pledge form.
How's it going? Are you close?
This is a blind competition, so no nominee shares running totals while it's live. I'll tell you where we landed after November 4.

Seven weeks

Two million preventable events a year. Start with one screening in Charleston.

Neighbors who know CPR before they need it. A blood pressure number caught early enough to matter. That's the work, and it gets funded a few hundred dollars at a time.

Give now Join my team
Or reach me directly john@rayerose.com
John Hoekman · Charleston · Sept 17 – Nov 4 Give now