Miss Charity Australia

If Only You Knew

After suffering a cardiac event following basic keyhole surgery at only 17 years of age, Asha was diagnosed with cardiomyopathy, non-compaction and mitral valve regurgitation, which to keep it simple, means she has Heart Failure.

She was told to stop everything. No sports, no dancing, no fast food, basically to stop life but swapping a teenage lifestyle for a long list of medication did not see Asha’s condition improve, instead she was getting worse.

A combination of frustration and a lack of understanding of her condition saw Asha push herself to the limits. She did everything she wasn’t supposed to. Parties, more than a dozen gym sessions a week and working excessive hours. This rebellion landed Asha in ICU where she was then transferred to the Advance Heart Team in Perth and within three months she was booked in for Heart Surgery to implant an Internal Cardiac Defibrillator.

It was there that she met the wonderful people from the Heart Foundation Australia who provided Asha with the resources and support to fully understand the seriousness of her condition and also prepare her for the inevitable – a Heart Transplant.

As a young woman staring down the barrel of a heart transplant within the next few years, Asha is on a mission to raise awareness and much needed funds to support lifesaving heart disease research and organ donation awareness and she was crowned Miss Charity Australia in November 2020.

Asha wants everyone to know that you are not alone and that information is power.

To learn more about the Heart Foundation Australia check out their website and become an organ donor here.

If you would like to know more about Asha you can follow her on LinkedIn and Instagram and you can read more at www.ifonlyyouknewpodcast.com.au

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