Sedalia native Nancy Fields and her husband, Eric, share a problem: heart disease.
After he was diagnosed with several blocked arteries in 2004, the two worked together to help each other. Their journey helped push Fields, now of Cordova, Tenn., into advocacy work. The two are the subject of a profile in this week's American Profile, where they tell their story.
Fields, who has had heart problems since her 30s, said her husband started to experience chest pain during a walk, and she made him go to the doctor.
He had to have stents to open his clogged arteries.
The profile in the nationally-distributed magazine highlights how the two work together to stay healthy.
"It's nice that they did a couple though, instead of just one or the other. Generally speaking, your relationships make a big difference in how you cope with things," she said.
The two watch what they eat and exercise together.
"I need to take care of myself as well. I've learned a lot, and my wife has been my teacher," Eric Fields said. "We work hand-in-hand in making decisions."
He credited his wife with teaching him how to take care of himself. The two stents were " a wake-up call ... I had to decide to get serious about lifestyle issues, decide what to eat, what not to eat, lose weight," he said.
She works with several women's heart health advocacy organizations.
"I am a spokesperson for WomenHeart, which is an organization for the education, support and advocacy for women with heart disease," she said. She also models for Go Red for Women at their annual gala and fashion show.
Her husband stays in the background, but helps her out with her advocacy work, which she started in 2006.
"I'm sort of along for the ride," he said.
"There's a lot of running around and a lot of other things I have to do, so he takes me and runs around with me," she said. "Men, generally speaking, unfortunately, they're not as active sometimes in the overall picture, so you have to get them involved in one way or another, so this is my way of doing that." To see more of The Sedalia Democrat or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.sedaliademocrat.com. Copyright (c) 2009, The Sedalia Democrat, Sedalia, Mo. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.
Copyright (C) 2009, The Sedalia Democrat, Sedalia, Mo.