Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling, joined by leading health care organizations and heart health advocates, announced Tuesday Virginia’s participation in the Lieutenant Governor’s Challenge: “Your Heart is in Your Hands" initiative, a heart and cardiovascular health campaign sponsored by the National Lieutenant Governor’s Association designed to promote heart health education, healthier living, increased physical activity and improved diet and nutrition.

The Lieutenant Governor’s Challenge: “Your Heart is in Your Hands” campaign is an incentive-based physical fitness and nutrition program where Virginians set individual, attainable goals of 30-minutes of daily exercise, track their progress on a personal webpage and receive a Gold, Silver or Bronze medal for achieving their goal.

The initiative includes a public awareness program with brochures, postcards and public service announcements to educate Virginians on heart health risk factors along with tips for healthier living. Bolling will also hold a Heart Health Summit to examine potential legislative and administrative opportunities to address heart and cardiovascular disease.

To show his commitment to the healthier living, Bolling is participating in the Challenge and making a personal weight loss goal of losing 20 pounds by the end of the year.

“Heart disease is the single greatest cause of death for both men and women, and heart and cardiovascular health is the largest health challenge facing Virginians, but we can change that. By taking simple steps toward healthier living, losing weight, increased physical fitness and proper dieting, Virginians can significantly mitigate their risk of contracting heart disease,” says Bolling. "The Lieutenant Governor’s Challenge will help educate Virginians about the dangers of heart disease and encourage them to eat healthier and exercise more through easy, attainable, everyday activities. I encourage all Virginians to visit our interactive, personalized website to learn more about the program, set their individual physical activity and nutritional goals and track their progress online. Hopefully, we’ll be able to help lower the risk of heart disease for participants and ultimately save lives.”

One in every three people in America has cardiovascular disease and more people die each day from heart related disease than cancer, HIV/AIDS and accidents combined. However, by leading a healthy life and losing weight through regular exercise and a balanced diet, you can reduce your risk for heart disease by as much as 82 precent.

Bolling has partnered with leading heart and cardiovascular organizations and healthier living advocates including the American Heart Association, the American Diabetes Association, the American Lung Association, Bon Secours, YMCA of Virginia, The Alliance for Healthy Virginians, Virginia School Nutritionist Association, VCU Medical Center and AstraZeneca to help promote the Lieutenant Governor’s Challenge and heart health education.

Bolling was also joined at the press conference by Jim Morris, a Richmond area resident who lost 300 pounds starting with simple physical activities like vacuuming and walking to the mailbox. This dramatic weight loss allowed Morris’ pacemaker and defibrillator to be removed.

"We are excited to work with Lt. Gov. Bolling on this important initiative that is aimed at getting Virginians active and therefore reducing our risk of heart disease," says Chuck Bartlett, senior vice president of health strategies at the American Heart Association. "We hope that those who choose to participate in the challenge will make this their first step towards a lifetime of physical activity."

As a member of the State Senate, Bolling served as Chairman of the Joint Commission on Health Care and the Senate's Subcommittee on Health Care. He also was the chief sponsor of the legislation that created the children’s health insurance program in Virginia. As Lieutenant Governor, Bolling has launched several other health care initiatives to promote public education and action to address cervical cancer, asthma and obesity.