Jamie O’Hanlon is a North Attleboro native living there with her husband, Ryan and their five daughters. Their connection to heart disease is through their fourth daughter, Scarlett, who was born with a rare cardiac defect called Pulmonary Atresia with Intact Ventricular Septum. Essentially, she had no blood flow from the heart to the lungs at birth.

Fortunately, Scarlett’s defect was found prenatally and she received a life-saving operation the day she was born at Children’s Hospital Boston. In February of 2020, Scarlett endured a second operation on her heart which improved her quality of life. Scarlett is now 11 years old and is under the close supervision of her cardiology team to plan the timing of her next major repair.

Since congenital heart disease has no cure, Scarlett will continue to need operations for the rest of her life in order to survive. Jamie and Ryan desperately wanted to turn this negative into something positive for their family and hence began fundraising for pediatric heart research almost immediately after Scarlett was born. Jamie decided to give that drive more focus through starting a non-profit. Her aim is to continue fundraising for pediatric heart research while also being able to give back to families in need that have been affected by heart and stroke both through the scholarship foundation and through the direct impact outreach.