Plenty of red filled Columbia City Hall recently to mark the annual Go Red for Women campaign.

The campaign works to raise awareness about heart disease, the leading cause of death in South Carolina and across the nation.

February is American Heart Month, with the first Friday designated as National Wear Red Day to spotlight cardiovascular disease in women. The city partners each year with the American Heart Association of the Midlands to encourage healthy behaviors and regular doctor checkups.

City leaders and health advocates gathered Feb. 6 to emphasize the importance of education, prevention and early detection for women, whose heart health sometimes gets overlooked.

South Carolina ranks high in several key risk factors, including high blood pressure, obesity and diabetes, said the University of South Carolina’s Gayenell Magwood.

“This is so important because, traditionally, studies done related to heart disease only included white men,” said Magwood, the school’s Myrtle Irene Brown Endowed Professor of Nursing. “What we try to share with communities, so there is no delay in care, is to bring focus to some of the symptoms that may present differently in women.”

Magwood did not attend the event, but her research focuses on health care access and cardiovascular patient disparities, issues that make awareness efforts especially critical in South Carolina.

Columbia zip code 29203 is exceptionally at risk for heart disease risk factors. Residents there face an ongoing diabetic amputation crisis, Magwood said.

“It’s great to see the city really rallying around something that touches so many lives,” said Maranda Williams, who has struggled with her heart health and attended the event. “I mean, I don’t know one person that doesn’t know somebody that hasn’t been affected by heart disease in some way.”

The Go Red event was first held in Columbia in 2014 and has grown steadily in attendance.

“It’s gotten to the point where we’re taking the group photo, and it’s hard to squeeze everyone in,” said Justin Stevens, the city’s director of public relations, media and marketing. “The people who show up this year will show up next year. It’s a very active crowd.”

This year’s survivor speaker was former Gamecock quarterback Connor Shaw. Shaw, who’s 34 and active, survived a cardiac arrest in September 2025 and soon after launched his nonprofit organization, HRTHUDL, pronounced “heart huddle.”

HRTHUDL’s mission is to equip communities with defibrillators, or AEDs, to revive someone who is unconscious and to increase public awareness about emergency response.

The Columbia Police Department has partnered with HRTHUDL to equip 300 frontline police vehicles with AEDs.

“It’s ambitious, but it would make a huge difference when it comes to public safety,” Stevens said.

The total fundraising goal is about $600,000, since each AED costing about $2,000.

“There is work to be done, and it involves collaboration among communities and at the neighborhood level,” Magwood said.