ntil a few months ago, Candace Laing, 57, was probably the last woman you would expect to be in danger of a heart attack.

She was not overweight, she did not smoke cigarettes and she exercised. In fact, she taught exercise. She began to notice, however, that she was getting tired, breathless and dizzy during her exercise lessons. On a routine stress test, there was an abnormality, but nobody was sure what to do because she had no other obvious risk factors.

It was not until her younger brother, who was in his forties, began to have heart problems that Mrs. Laing?s doctors began to worry. ?My brother was in extremely good condition,? said Mrs. Laing. ?He was not overweight. He exercised, ate well and took vitamins, all the things that a healthy person would do. Then he suddenly started to feel very weak and short of breath. Then he had a heart attack. That made the doctors start to look at me a little bit differently.

?In the end, what we have discovered is that because both of us were leading very healthy lives, there must be a hereditary thing going on.?

In fact, Mrs. Laing had a blockage in her heart and needed a stent put in to open it.

?I was very fortunate that they discovered I had a blockage before I actually had a heart attack,? said Mrs. Laing. ?So I didn?t have to recover from the heart attack.

?It was quite a surprise to me when the first stent went in. I had to have a new stent put in this fall because something didn?t go right with the first stent. But the first one was quite a surprise because I didn?t think there was really anything much wrong with me.

?Once the stent was placed and I recovered from the procedure I did find that I had a lot more energy and I was feeling a lot better than I had in a long time. I was very grateful that there is a process of being able to open up the arteries. That was last May.?

Since her operation, Mrs. Laing has been concentrating even more on exercise and healthy eating.

?I thought that my diet was extremely good before, but now I have cut down to almost vegetarian and fish. For me that is a lifestyle choice. I am now much more focused on exercise especially aerobic cardiovascular exercise. Again, I thought I was doing enough, but now it is even more.?

She has one grown-up son, who has also begun to lead a healthier life, fearing that he might also have some genetic link to heart disease.

?I am trying to learn as much as I can about what he needs to do to test and make sure,? she said. ?One thing I wish I had done was to keep more of a focus on controlling my blood pressure.?

To keep the stress level down in her life, she gave up her small yoga teaching business.

She also joined the Cardiac Care programme at King Edward VII Memorial Hospital.

?I did want to follow-up with the programme, because once you have the stent put in, you stay in the hospital for another 12 to 24 hours and then they put you on the street, so to speak.

?They had given me some basic instructions and medications to take, but I was thinking I have this stent in here now; and what did I do to get it in here? I wanted to know what to do to make sure it didn?t happen again. I do have a blockage on the other side which could eventually grow and I could have a stent on that side. Myrian Balitian-Dill in the Cardiac Care programme was very helpful.?

Mrs. Laing said she wanted to educate herself, because before her operation she really knew very little about heart disease.

She urged other women who may be feeling chest pains, or shortness of breath to go to the doctor.

?Because we are caregivers, we tend to deny ourselves,? she said. ?Women often feel very shy about going to the emergency room and saying ?I think I am having a heart attack?, for fear that someone will say we don?t believe you.

?I think that is probably why so many women end up dying from heart attacks because they wait too long. Often times women don?t have the classic symptoms of a heart attack the way men do. Women have their separate symptoms. It can be something as simple as feeling like you have a terrible case of indigestion, or that you are feeling light headed or breathless.

?In some cases women feel extremely fatigued when their hearts are not functioning properly. It is really important that if you don?t go to the hospital, at least you follow up with your doctor.?She said women need to take care of themselves by exercising, eating right and getting a handle on the stress in their lives.

?I do yoga and reading exercises because I think a lot of stress is brought on by not breathing properly. We are almost in a state of holding our breath as we rush around.?