When Cheri Daniels lost her mother to heart disease more than three years ago, the first lady of Indiana decided to do something to raise awareness about the disease.Daniels said people often think breast cancer is the leading killer of women, but it's not. Heart disease is No. 1, causing more than 40,000 deaths in Indiana each year. After nine months of planning, Daniels started to tour the state's college campuses on Oct. 2 in what she is calling her "Heart to Heart" initiative. She will speak tonight at 7:30 p.m. in L.A. Pittenger Student Center Cardinal Hall B. Ball State University is the second stop for Daniels, who was in Evansville at the University of Southern Indiana Oct. 2. The main focus of the first lady's program is to make college-aged females aware that half of women will have heart disease and the time to make preventative lifestyle choices is at a young age. However, Daniels said, the age group she's targeting thinks they'll never have problems. "This is a very hard group of people to hit," she said. "It's very hard to get a healthy 18- to 24-year-old to think 'Oh, I'm not immortal.'"The first lady's speech is sponsored by the Panhellenic Council and the Health Education Office. Brittany Madison, the council's vice president of education and programming, said the first lady's office contacted the council about coming to campus and the Executive Board decided to support the event. "It's a big deal that the first lady wants to come to our campus," Madison said. Starting at 6:30 p.m., free health screenings will be offered. Ball State's Health Education Office will provide body mass index and body fat composition readings. Results of the readings will be available after the speech, Lisa Thomason, health educator, said. Ball Memorial Hospital will offer blood pressure, cholesterol and glucose screenings. Blood will be drawn by pricking the finger, Thomason said. Screenings are targeted towards women and those wishing to go through the tests should show up early because only about 20 to 25 people will be accepted because of time constraints, Madison said.
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