Kelly Zhang

My fundraiser is called “Climb for Cardiology”, and the story behind my goal is very near and dear to my heart (pun intended): 

I was born in Silver Spring, Maryland while my parents were attending graduate school at UMD. Within a few hours of my birth, I started turning cyanotic and was rushed to the ICU. I was diagnosed with malposition of the great arteries and a single ventricle with right ventricle morphology—basically, I only had half a heart. At a few weeks old, I underwent a central shunt; at 9 months, a bidirectional Glenn; and at 5 years, the Fontan procedure.

While my open heart surgery was greatly successful, I still experienced a lot of complications throughout my childhood. Most notably, I had extremely low exercise tolerance and I often experienced irregular fast heart rates that sent me to the ER. My parents moved us to the Bay Area where the mild weather would be easier on my reduced circulatory system. I was constantly cautioned against any strenuous exercise since even attempting to run the mile for PE gave me chest pains. However, I was extremely stubborn. Despite that I would be gasping for air, I pushed myself to play sports recreationally, go on long hikes, and try new adrenaline-seeking activities. Over the course of the years, this constant pushing has helped my heart become much stronger and my abnormal rhythms less frequent.

The one activity central to my journey of redefining my health limitations has been climbing. I first discovered the sport while living in Washington, where I did undergrad at the UW. Tagging along with my friends to Seattle Bouldering Project, I was faced with an expanse of bright, plastic holds. In accordance with the color-coded grade range chart, I sent my first climb on a yellow V0 problem. From that moment on, I was hooked. Climbing combined my love for thrills, problem solving, and, especially, being stubborn. I approached climbing problems with the same philosophy as I did my heart problems: by putting in persistent effort, I can overcome any crux. 

I am now a PhD student at Johns Hopkins doing cardiac computational modeling. Moving back to the East Coast and developing clinically translational tools for treating heart diseases, I feel like I have come full circle. Climbing, however, remains an integral part of my life. While I am by no means an exceptional climber, I am very proud of the physical progress I have made. Everytime I am on the wall, I am reminded of how grateful I am to the doctors and scientists whose efforts have allowed me to be alive and healthy today. I therefore aim to give back to the community by starting a fundraiser with the Children’s Heart Foundation. The non-profit’s mission is “to advance the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of congenital heart defects by funding the most promising research”. Congenital heart diseases are America’s most common birth defect, affecting nearly 40,000 babies each year in the U.S alone. For my fundraiser, I will dedicate each climbing session to the babies born with congenital heart defects. Additionally, at the end of June, I will donate 10 times the highest grade that I climb. I humbly ask the climbing community to also consider donating and helping me “full send” this endeavor.

The Children's Heart Foundation was founded in 1996 and is the country's leading organization solely dedicated to funding congenital heart defect (CHD) research. 

Our mission is to advance the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of congenital heart defects by funding the most promising research.