Heart disease is claiming the lives of more women than breast cancer at a rate of three to one.

With rates of cardiovascular related deaths in the Tamworth local government area significantly higher than the state average, Heart Foundation regional co-ordinator Penny Milson said it’s a largely preventable issue.

“People tend to think it’s mainly a man’s disease,” Ms Milson said. “And women often have a bikini approach to their health .”

Alarmingly, 90 per cent of woman are carrying a “modifiable” factor that puts them at risk of heart disease.

“It’s a complex disease with a number of risk factors, including; smoking, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, being overweight, poorly managed diabetes and inactivity,” Ms Milson said.

“Ninety per cent of women  have at least one risk factor and 50 per cent will have two or three.”

Tamworth woman Robyn Northey lost her father and brother to heart disease, which prompted her and her siblings to be more proactive about their heart health.

Losing her brother at age 51 to heart disease opened Mrs Northey’s eyes to the non-discriminatory nature of the disease and prompted her three siblings to get regular heart and stress checks.

“Friends have said ‘don’t you think you’re going a bit overboard’,” Mrs Northey said.

“My brother didn’t know he had anything wrong with him; he was fit; he was a smoker.

“He went to bed one night and didn’t get up the next day.”

Mrs Northey said a lot of people think it won’t happen to them, but encouraged people to not take their health for granted.

Another driving factor for Mrs Northey’s heart awareness was the future for her children.

“Personally, I know how hard it has been losing parents and I don’t want my kids to walk the same line,” she said.

A National Heart Foundation campaign to raise awareness of women and heart disease will be launched in Tamworth on Thursday, with health professionals at Tamworth hospital standing together to pledge their support for women’s heart health in the region.