Katrina’s Story – Lost Hearts

Turning Heartbreak into Hope: A rural Australian mum’s mission to close the gap in heart health.

I’m Katrina Umback, a proud mum of two teenage boys, living in Mildura in regional Victoria, Australia. Our community is vibrant and close-knit, but like so many rural areas, we face real challenges when it comes to healthcare, especially heart health. My connection to this issue is deeply personal.

On Australia Day 2019, my husband Scott suffered a fatal heart attack. He was only 42. We were waiting for him to be flown to Melbourne for emergency care, but the treatment he needed was 600 kilometres away. He never made it. In one shocking moment, my boys lost their dad and I lost the love of my life.

Scott’s death turned our world upside down. Overnight, I became both mum and dad, raising two boys (12 and 9 years old) while learning to navigate life without the person I’d loved since I was 17 years old. The grief was overwhelming, but it also gave me a fierce determination. I couldn’t change what happened to Scott, but I could work to make sure fewer families went through the same heartbreak.

Since then, I’ve stepped into advocacy, raising awareness about heart disease and the unique risks faced by rural communities. Through my partnership with the Heart Foundation, I’ve delivered awareness campaigns, raised close to $100,000 to support their work, and helped bring over 1,100 free heart health checks to the Mallee, leading to life-saving interventions.

I’ve also joined a federally funded research team with La Trobe University to co-design an at-home Heart Health Check Kit, which will allow rural Australians to access heart disease screening without the barriers of distance, travel, or cost. And in collaboration with CAD Frontiers, a national and international research partnership, I’ve helped connect Mildura directly with their clinical trial and world-leading research aimed at preventing heart attacks before they happen.

My story isn’t just about my family; it’s about every family living with the unfair reality of distance and inequity. In Mildura, heart disease is the leading cause of preventable death. People wait longer, travel further, and too often, they don’t survive. But it doesn’t have to be this way. By investing in prevention strategies and programs along with vital infrastructure like a Cath lab, will ensure timely access to treatment and greatly contribute to closing the gap between rural and city healthcare, and ultimately saves lives, regardless of where you live.
If you’re reading this, my message is simple: please don’t wait. Know your risk factors, get your heart checked, and take prevention seriously. If something doesn’t feel right, speak up and keep speaking up. To policymakers and health leaders, where someone lives should never decide whether they live, especially in a country like Australia. And to anyone walking a similar path of loss, please know I am holding you and your loved one in my heart and they, too, drive my efforts to help end heart disease being the world’s number one killer.
On this World Heart Day, I share Scott’s story as both a tribute and a call for change. Together, we can build a world where every heart matters.

About Katrina

Katrina Umback is a nationally respected rural health advocate and community leader. Based in Mildura, she has worked with the Hearts4heart Advocacy Training Academy, Heart Foundation, La Trobe University, and CAD Frontiers to reduce the burden of heart disease in rural communities. She has raised close to $100,000 for the Heart Foundation, delivered public awareness campaigns, and helped bring free heart health checks to the Mallee. In 2025, Katrina was named Mildura Rural City Council’s Citizen of the Year. Her work is founded on the belief that your postcode should not determine your mortality, and it is dedicated to her husband, Scott.