Empower Your Heart

Four years ago, Susan Lucci had her first cardiac episode. She had been shopping for a birthday present for a friend when suddenly she had a tightening in her chest that radiated around her rib cage. She'd felt something similar twice in recent weeks. Both had been mild enough to dismiss, but the manager of the store insisted on driving her to the hospital. Once there, doctors discovered that two of her arteries were blocked, one 90% and the other 75%. That night she underwent an emergency procedure that restored full blood flow in both damaged arteries.

Then in January 2022, it happened again – a discomfort radiating around her rib cage, shortness of breath and pain in the left side of her jaw. Her cardiologist met her at the ER and by morning she had a stent implanted in a coronary artery that was 80% blocked, potentially avoiding a serious heart attack.

Lucci wants her message to resonate with women, especially since learning that heart disease is their No. 1 killer, claiming more lives each year than all forms of cancer combined.

"We're not on our own to-do list," she said. "We are nurturing others. That's what we do, and we have places to go and people to see, and we don't think we can fit (caring for ourselves) into our schedules."