Just a few quick facts for today:

• Congenital heart defects are America’s and every country’s #1 birth defect. Nearly one of every 100 babies is born with a CHD.

• Each year approximately 40,000 babies are born in the United States with a congenital heart defect. thousands of them will not reach their first birthday and thousands more die before they reach adulthood.

• In the United States, twice as many children die from congenital heart defects each year than from all forms of childhood cancer combined, yet funding for pediatric cancer research is five times higher than funding for CHD.

• Congenital heart defects are common and deadly, yet CHD research is grossly under-funded relative to the prevalence of the disease.