“My doctor had been talking to me about my high blood pressure, but I was not overweight and I walked, so I thought I was fine,” says St. Louis Pastor Shadrach Robinson. 

 

However, a lifestyle of fast food and packaged frozen dinners combined with family history caught up with him. 

“I am now taking blood pressure medicine. I pay attention to what I eat, I go to my doctor and do what he says, and I am walking a lot more than I was before.”  says Robinson. “The stroke took me by surprise but it also has taught me how to be mindful of my health and how to live and enjoy a more balanced, happy life.”

 

Pastor Robinson is a success story and an advocate for Get Pumped!, a partnership between Oasis and the Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis with support from AstraZeneca HealthCare Foundation’s Connections for Cardiovascular Health^SM  program.  

 

“The goal of Get Pumped! is to improve the health behaviors of adults living in nine high risk zip codes in St. Louis where they saw increased hospitalizations due to cardiovascular disease,” says Sarah Lovegreen, national health director for Oasis Institute.  “We are providing tools we know work to people who have at least one risk factor such as hypertension, physical inactivity or diabetes which are all contributing factors to heart disease.” 
 

For more information about Get Pumped! services and programs, call 314-862-2933, ext. 246.