Smiley’s Voice Foundation to Host its 12th Black, White & Red Gala November 22nd
In July, 2024, Jonathan Burke, an executive member of the Jamaica Stroke Alliance, revealed some disturbing data. He said the leading cause of health-related death in Jamaica is a stroke, with 10,000 people suffering a neurovascular incident every year.
Carol Hylton, founder of Smiley’s Voice Foundation and Dr. Kevin Wade, senior neurosurgeon at the University Hospital of the West Indies' stroke unit in Jamaica, at the 2024 Black, Red & White Foundation Gala at Doubletree By Hilton hotel in Fort Lauderdale.According to Burke, approximately 3,000 of those victims die.
Many of them suffered a stroke because they were unable to afford treatment. Some were not educated about how to prevent one.
Carol Hylton, a Jamaican registered nurse who lives in South Florida, has worked tirelessly for improvement in both areas since forming Smiley’s Voice Foundation in 2009. On November 22, that organization will stage its 12th Black, White& Red Fundraising Gala at Doubletree By Hilton hotel in Fort Lauderdale.
The event raises funds for the Stroke Unit at the University Hospital of the West Indies (UHWI) in St. Andrew parish, Jamaica. Last year, her team donated $5,000 to that facility.
Hylton, who is from Portland parish in eastern Jamaica, told Caribbean Today that there has been tremendous support for Smiley’s Voice Foundation.
“We have received growing support from our local commissioners and mayors in Broward County. Our initial objectives have been to improve the health and wellness in our community through stroke awareness and prevention programs and decrease the incidence of stroke,” she said. “Our local community has expanded to Jamaica and globally through radio programs and social media”
Around the same time Burke bemoaned the rise in strokes in Jamaica, Hylton and Dr. Rosemarie Lewis — a leading figure in South Florida’s Jamaican Diaspora — coordinated a mission to the UHWI strike unit. A team, led by leading South Florida neurosurgeons Dr. Norman Ajiboye and Dr Brandon Davis, accompanied by Dr Kevin Wade, consultant neurointerventional surgeon at the UHWI, conducted five successful surgeries there.
Neurovascular disease hits close home to Hylton’s family. Her son, Michael Hylton, died from a stroke in 2009, a loss that inspired her to start Smiley’s Voice Foundation.
“This event is very important to me and my family because it’s a platform that we can use to increase awareness of stroke and its impact in our community locally and globally,” she said.