Heart disease, including heart attack, is the leading cause of death amongst Australian women and yet three-quarters of women don't know this fact. This highlights the need to raise awareness about heart health as a serious health issue for women.

MPs are being called on to support the Heart Foundation's Go Red for Women campaign to help raise awareness amongst their constituents to redress this lack of knowledge and to provide practical ideas about what women can do to improve their heart health.

Heart Foundation CEO Cameron Prout is concerned that women are not aware that they're at risk of developing cardiovascular disease.

"If women know their risk, they can start early in life to look after their heart health. The key steps to good heart health are to be active every day, eat healthy food and be smoke free," says Mr Prout.

"Women are very good at looking after the men and children in their lives, and often forget to keep a check on their own health. Women, as well as men, need regular health checks so that they know what their numbers for blood pressure, blood cholesterol and waist circumference are."

Over 200 Australian women die of heart disease every week - that's 29 Australian women a day. Heart disease is responsible for almost 16% of all deaths in Australian women.

"Australian women are four times more likely to die of heart disease than breast cancer, so we need to increase awareness in our community," Mr Prout says.

"Australia has done a wonderful job to raise awareness about breast cancer. We now need women to look at their health as a whole, including looking after their heart health."

"That's why the Heart Foundation is calling on all State MPs, including women and men, to join our Go Red for Women campaign to educate their constituents about the dangers of heart disease for women," says Mr Prout.

The Heart Foundation is calling on all MPs to pledge their support to fight heart disease and join in the Go Red for Women Healthy Heart Challenge at www.goredforwomen.org.au. MPs can also play an important role by encouraging everyone in their electorate to take part in the

Healthy Heart Challenge to improve the heart health of all Queenslanders.