Ten years into the Angels journey, it would be easy to believe that all the great firsts had already happened.
After all, together we have built thousands of stroke-ready hospitals, supported millions of patients, and created a global community that spans every continent. Surely by now we have seen it all.
And yet, every time I think that, another story comes along that reminds me how much further we can go.
This year we celebrated the graduation of the first Stroke Mentorship Program for Sub-Saharan Africa. In Indonesia, Sleman became the country's first Angels Region, showing what is possible when an entire community rallies around a shared mission.
Madeira became Europe's first Angels Island, proving that geography should never determine outcomes.
In Chile, what started as our first Boehringer Ingelheim FAST Heroes volunteering initiative grew into a movement that carried stroke awareness from classrooms into homes and communities.
And in Brazil, nurses attending a congress found themselves racing against the clock in a stroke escape room that transformed education into experience.
In South Africa, the team at Lenmed Shifa Private Hospital (pictured above) celebrated their sixth consecutive diamond award. Reading their story, I was reminded that every excellence journey begins with a first step. The first award brought validation. The five that followed brought something even more valuable: belief. Belief in the process, belief in one another, and belief that a relatively small hospital can achieve and sustain world-class standards when everyone commits to getting a little better every day. What impressed me most was their relentless focus on improvement. Even after six diamonds, they are still looking for the next five minutes they can save, the next lesson they can learn, and the next opportunity to do better for their patients.
Perhaps my favorite first is not one that appears in a headline.
It is the moment when someone decides to do something that has never been done before in their hospital, their city, their region, or even their country.
The moment Dr Cristián Toloza and his colleagues helped create South America’s first Angels Region.
The moment Dr Peter Waweru decided that language should never be a barrier to stroke care and helped bring stroke tools to the millions of people who speak Swahili.
The moment Dr Nune Yeghiazaryan refused to stop dreaming about better stroke care for Armenia.
Or the moment a child teaches a grandparent the signs of stroke.
Every Angels first begins the same way.
Someone looks at the current reality and decides it is not enough.
As I read the stories in this issue, I kept coming back to something one of our stroke champions said:
“If not now, then when? If not you, then who?”
Ten years after Angels began, that question remains as relevant as ever.
Every Angels first begins the same way. Someone looks at the current reality and decides it is not enough.
And perhaps that is the most inspiring thing of all.
It is never too late to be first.
Download the September issue of The Angels Journey here.
