Flip through the latest issue of Gulf Weekly.
Awareness campaigns come in many different forms these days, and Majid Al Futtaim’s ‘Feel the Beat’ campaign proved to be right on the pulse when it came to promoting a healthy heart.
Women visiting City Centre Bahrain this week received complimentary preventative screening and professional healthcare advice to prevent cardiovascular diseases, with tests such as blood pressure, blood sugar and Body Mass Index (BMI) to determine if they were at risk for heart diseases and if they should seek follow-ups for more extensive examination.
Senior mall manager Duaij Al Rumaihi said: “This is the seventh year of the campaign, which we have conducted in all 19 of our centres in the five countries we are established in. It’s part of our commitment to create great moments for everyone every day and as part of our corporate social responsibility towards the community.
“17 million people perished due to cardiac arrest or heart disease last year, which was more than cancer claimed, and this is expected to rise to 23m by 2030.
“There’s a myth that men are more prone to heart disease, but, in actual fact, there’s an equal chance for women too. That’s why we’re doing this, so that women are aware that they have a danger too.”
The highlight of the campaign was setting the sound of heartbeats to music via an app featuring the latest technology, controlled by popular island spinner DJ Sonia.
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To prove that reporter Kristian Harrison has a heart too, despite the fact that he claims it’s been broken too many times, we sent him to try out the equipment as it was being set up at the mall.
From now on, he’ll be making sweet music and reports:
I WAS the first person to try out the beat machine and I was ushered into the recording booth, handed a pair of earbuds connected to a digital stethoscope and instructed to find my heartbeat so the process could begin.
Eventually, after apparently forgetting where it was located for a second, I found my pumping heart which was going quicker than normal, probably from the excitement of trying something new.
The other end was connected to a computer, so after 30 seconds of recording it was fed into the DJ’s computer and she started mixing a tune. The beat was matched with a soundtrack that matched my BPM, and she added a few special effects to create a new song.
It’s quite bizarre hearing a song set to my own heartbeat, but I must say I provide a decent tune! There was a choice to send the song via email, or via the more instant option of posting it straight to your social media account, and thus spread awareness quickly.
Look for my name on a chart listing near you soon! I promise it’s the best Heart song since Barracuda ...
