CEO wins National Award

HeartKids CEO Neil McWhannell, has won the Equity Trustees Not for Profit CEO of the Year Award for First Year Achiever. These Awards are presented to outstanding leaders in Australia’s Not For Profit (NFP) and charitable sectors, recognising service excellence, enhanced organisational image and partnership success.

Neil started as HeartKids Australia’s first national CEO in June 2007 and has quickly brought focus and rigour to the NFP organisation, which was previously a loose collection of state-based bodies born out of the passion of a few families coping with all the emotions associated with having a child with congenital heart disease.

The Award was presented at a lavish ceremony at the National Gallery in Melbourne. Whilst the award acknowledges personal achievement, Neil prefers to see it as a great opportunity to promote his charity. With congenital heart disease being the most common birth abnormality and the greatest killer of children under the age of 5, Neil believes this award provides his young charity with a great opportunity to raise awareness of the alarming facts.

Most people I speak to are unaware of these facts, being more aware of the needs of cancer and adult coronary heart disease because of the financial capacity of the big charities to promote their cause. Each day 6 children are born with heart disease, over 2000 a year. These children fill half the beds in all children’s Intensive Care Units. Sadly around 250 of these children still succumb to the disease each year.

Neil says one of the great joys of his job is speaking to community groups and individuals about the needs of childhood heart disease.

HeartKids works to assist children and families who have been affected by Childhood Heart Disease and with corporate support is now funding much needed research in the hope less children will be born with these diseases and that mortality rates will decrease.