HealthAhead Heroes
Paige Bradley Murray
Louisville, Kentucky
Mobile Mammography
Prevention is one of the eight elements of HealthAhead, and Paige Bradley Murray, a GE Appliances employee in Louisville, Kentucky, demonstrated how just a single focus area can change someone’s life forever. When a mobile mammography unit rolled into Louisville’s Appliance Park last year, 40-year-old Paige had her first-ever mammogram and discovered she had breast cancer.
Following surgery, she had six weeks of radiation therapy and chemotherapy every three weeks. Just over a year later, nearly 150 of her fellow employees celebrated Paige’s recovery and return to work. “I was so impressed with how GE teamed up with the Cancer Center and brought [the mammography unit] out to us,” Paige says. “I’m just so grateful. It really warmed my heart to know that they really do care. And, in my case, they saved my life.”
Rashmi Sareen
Montreal, Canada
Stress Management
Managing stress is a key element of HealthAhead, but it’s not always as easy to implement as fitness or nutrition. Around the world, GE sites offer yoga, tai chi and even laughter therapy. Employees like Rashmi Sareen, a cash officer at GE Capital in Montreal, Canada, have found unique ways to manage stress in their daily lives.
When Rashmi started at GE, she registered for Indian dance classes at a local studio. “I wasn’t looking to change my lifestyle, but the classes were so much fun, they have now become an integral part of my life,” she says. Before joining the dance classes, Rashmi says she wasn’t very physically active. The classes have boosted her energy level, improved her overall physical well-being and helped her manage day-to-day stress. What’s more, Rashmi is helping to set up Hatha yoga classes at work, and now she’s planning to run in a 5.4-kilometer event to promote cancer research.
Tim Schneller
Charlottesville, Virginia
Healthy as a Family
HealthAhead focuses not only on the health of employees but also on the health of employees’ families. Tim Schneller of GE Intelligent Platforms, in Charlottesville, Virginia, shows how fun it can be to get and stay healthy as a family. When he and his family began the program, Tim, at 6 feet 4 inches tall, weighed 360 pounds. “I would consume 4,000 calories a day,” he admits. “An afternoon snack was a soda and candy bar.”
To start, the family—including Tim’s wife Christine and daughters Carolyn and Rachel—set up a good support system that included contests to help them make healthy food choices, stay focused and have fun. Tim and Christine trained for four- and 10-mile races to jumpstart their workout of choice—running. In total, the family has lost 160 pounds, and everyone exercises between three and five times each week. And everyone eats healthier. “I know for certain we wouldn’t have been as successful if we weren’t all working on being healthy together as a family,” Tim says. “That has made all the difference.”
Prakash Jha
Hyderabad, India
Health by Numbers
GE’s Health by Numbers program inspired Prakash Jha of GE Energy in Hyderabad, India, to quit smoking and get fit in 2010. Some light-hearted ribbing from friends about his weight pushed Prakash to make changes.
“That night,” says Prakash, “I decided to lose weight. Then came GE’s Health by Numbers Winter Olympics challenge, and that changed my life.” During his first workout, Prakash couldn’t jog for long, but the challenge at work helped him gain stamina and end his one-pack-a-day smoking habit. That was the toughest challenge of all, he says. Today, Prakash starts each day by jogging, stretching and doing yoga. And he eats a healthy diet that includes five meals daily with lots of protein, fiber and fruits, but no meat. How does he feel? “Like king of the world. I’m ready to meet any challenge at home or work.”
