Tuesday 19 August 2025: Today Dr Radhika of Her Heart Australia discusses the advocacy and education provided to improve women’s health.

Her Heart Australia was able to provide Ronda Hazell with a cardiologist that suits her current heart diagnosis.

Dr Radhika Arunkumar, General Manager at Her Heart Australia discusses the cardiologist finder, their wallet card and resources for better women’s health.

Post script: Ronda did more of her own research about her heart condition and she is now getting assistance from John Ritter Aortic Foundation. https://johnritterfoundation.org/support/

The John Ritter Aortic Foundation offers free support available to anyone affected through appointment prep meetings with their registered nurses to peer support by trained volunteers. These are open to anyone worldwide.

From Her Heart CEO & Founder

Tuesday 22 July 2025: In June 2024 Ronda was faced with dealing with her own heart disease reality. Heart disease for women is different.

Today she discusses how Ronda needed to find a cardiologist that provided her with the information and care that she now shares with the community through #SewDoItForHeart25.

Ronda Hazell’s story started in June 2024 when an echocardiogram showed she had a dilated ascending aorta (a dilation is a bulge where the diameter of the aorta gets bigger when it is more than 1.5 times normal size it is called an aneurysm).

This is a life-threatening medical condition because larger aneurysms can rupture or dissect. Aortic disease is linked to problems with the aortic valve of the heart.

Ronda has regular check-ups with a cardiologist to monitor her heart and aneurysm size.

Finding good medical help was difficult but it is there. 

Having the issues she’s been facing discussed will help more of women find good medical diagnosis and help. 

Aortic disease/aortic aneurysm is not included as a heart condition in either The Australian Heart Foundation or Her Heart’s website. There is a real lack of resources and support for this condition in Australia.

Update 12 August 2025: Ronda has been able to make contact with the John Ritter Aortic Foundation and they may be able to give Ronda more help in the near future.

The resources on the John Ritter Aortic Foundation are very comprehensive.

#SewDoItForHeart25 is a way to showcase people in the sewing community who integrate hearts into their projects to raise awareness that heart disease for women exists and is different.

Tuesday 7 March 2023: Ronda Hazell is Anakiequilter and we’re bringing her story to you in 2 episodes this time.

Ronda’s story is more than just sewing. In this episode Ronda talks about how she’s kept herself occupied and creative at times when she was working in Tasmania during her engineering studies.

Her mother allowed Ronda to take her sewing machine with her during the Summer break.

Ronda’s grandmother bought Ronda her first sewing machine as a wedding gift.

Next week Ronda discusses SewOver50 and sewing patterns designed for mature bodies like Stoxk Patterns.

Tuesday 14 March 2022: Ronda is back to discuss the good work SewOver50 does to raise the visibility of older sewists on Instagram.

There are some great Indie pattern companies that are focussing on raising awareness of mature sewists like Lindy of Stokx patterns.