The last thing a family rushing off to the children's hospital is thinking about is grabbing a camera to take photos. On March 7th, 2018 I frantically packed to get to SickKids Hospital in Toronto after a cardiologist called to say I needed to get my son there within the hour. After six months of being part of the heart warrior family, I created Project Mighty Hearts to document the journey of oth
er heart families. https://www.projectmightyhearts.com/
Project Mighty Heart's mission is to provide free, compassionate and authentic photography sessions that document very raw and very real experiences of families whose children have congenital heart diseases (CHD). Everyone's story deserves to be told. My life-changing stay at SickKids Hospital when my newborn son, Jack, was diagnosed with a congenital heart disease (CHD) was short and relatively straightforward compared to many other families on the cardiac floor. At two-and-a-half weeks old, my son was diagnosed with SVT (supra ventricular tachycardia), a heart disease that is manageable with medication. One in three babies grows out of it. If he doesn't, there is the possibility of surgery or continuing medication. My son basically has what she calls a "Mighty Heart" that is supercharged and can run into a race condition that spikes his heart rate. Our time at Sick Kids is hard to describe. I was scared but as scary of a time that is was, I wanted photos of the three of us. Not selfies, not phone photos, but photos a professional took. I needed this time in our lives captured. Because this is Jack's story as much as it is ours. He deserves to have this part of his story preserved in time for his future self. I knew I had to create something meaningful for families that were going through similar or worse experiences that I had with Dave and Jack. Which is when I decided to create Project Mighty Hearts.
- Jen Allison, founder of Project Mighty Hearts
For every family photo session Jen Allison Photography sells, one family photo session will be gifted to a Heart Family that has been directly impacted by CHD through their child. https://www.jenallison.ca/project-mig...
Congenital heart disease is a problem in the structure of the heart that is present at birth. The cause of a congenital heart defect is often unknown and are the most common form of birth defect, present in about 1% of live births. Congenital heart disease is the leading cause of birth defect-related deaths, but it grossly under-funded relative to the prevalence of the disease.
