Heart disease affects all people regardless of religion, race, colour creed and even politics.

Last night, however, my eyes were opened by the Dhadkan Group who showed me and 600 others in the nation’s capital that heart disease and type 2 diabetes show prevalence in Canadians of Southeast Asian descent and, in particular, those whose lineage is from India.

For the past six years the Dhadkan Group has been raising money for the Ottawa Heart Institute and under the leadership of Anand Aggarwal, Dr. Parvesh Bajaj, Manjit Basi, Bharat Rudra and Vijay Tejuja they have raised more than 6.3 million dollars to combat heart disease.

I am extremely grateful to Daljit Nirman a lifetime patron of Dhadkan for inviting me to share in last evenings 6th Annual Dhadkan Fundraising Event as well as to keynote speaker Dr. Sonia Anand of McMaster University for an important presentation that will save lives.

As the host of last evening’s event, Jyoti Aggarwal so brilliantly pointed out, even if one segment of the population is more susceptible to a disease, it requires an entire community to work together to combat that disease.

I congratulate the Dhadkan organizers and the Ottawa Heart Institute for their successful fundraising event and, above all, for the meaningful work that they do for the City of Ottawa.LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY OF ONTARIOMonday 1 December 2008