Chennai, September 2022: With growing cardiac concerns among youngsters in the country, Prashanth Hospitals, one of the leading super specialty hospitals in Chennai and Department of Visual Communication, Loyola College have jointly announced a month-long cardiac awareness campaign – Save Young Hearts. The campaign was launched in the city today by Honorable Thiru Siva. V. Meyyanathan,Minister for Environment-Climate Change and Youth Welfare and Sportsdevelopment, Government of Tamil Nadu. Working up to World Heart Day on 29th September 2022, the campaign has a series of activities like flash mobs, public health checkups and Street theatre act. In addition to this, an intriguing short film competition titled – Heart FilmFestival is also set to be organized to further spread awareness about various heart ailments among youngsters and preventive measures.
The Heart Film Festival, a short film competition will kick start from September 10th and the last date for receiving entries is on 24th September 2022. Students, Aspiring filmmakers and Young talents across the country can participate in this contest by registering and submitting their video content with a maximum duration of not more than 5 minutes. A distinguished panel of jury members consisting of notable and well-acclaimed media professionals like Dir.Balasekaran, Cinematographer Om Prakash & Editor RK Selva will decide the best 3 shortlisted films and the winners will be rewarded with a cash prize of 1 lakh, 50,000 and 25,000 respectively. Interested students can submit their entries to – https://www.saveyounghearts.
Commenting on the occasion, Hon’ble Minister Thiru Siva. V. Meyyanathan, Minister for Environment-Climate Change and Youth Welfare and Sportsdevelopment, Government of Tamil Nadu, unveiled the campaign and said “Save Young Hearts initiative is an ideal opportunity to bring people together to tackle the world’s biggest killer and encourage them to improve their heart health. Cardiovascular disease is preventable, we encourage people to take action to learn more about their heart health. This campaign should help people make better choices and develop healthier habits for life. I am delighted to be a part of this initiative along with Prashanth Hospitals and Department of Visual Communication, Loyola College and would like to wish them all the best in their pursuit of spreading this extremely important message on cardiac health”.
Adding to this, Dr. Prashanth Krishna – Director of Prashanth Hospitals, Chennai said “We have observed a rise in cases of cardiac arrests in the past few years among youngsters which is a major concern for healthcare practitioners. The exponential proportion of the increase in under-40 adults having heart attacks has been rising by 2 percent every year in the last decade. Globally speaking, around 17 million people succumb to cardiovascular diseases, accounting for nearly 30 percent of total mortality. Our initiative will be a clarion call to promote awareness and proper expert-based information on how young people can take simple efforts in ensuring proper and timely care for their hearts. We are happy to partner with the Department of Visual Communication, Loyola College in this noble cause for raising an alarm on this recent silent killer. We are looking forward to seeing the best work by young minds on this extremely significant topic”
Dr. B. Nidhya, Spokesperson from Department of Visual Communication, Loyola College “We are extremely honoured to partner with Prashanth Hospitals on promoting Cardiac wellness among youngsters. We are confident that this initiative will create an impact among youngsters through a series of powerful events. Our goal is to work together towards providing sustainable solutions to prevent early cardiac deaths.”