LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The Kentuckiana Heart Walk was held Saturday in Louisville where participants helped support the American Heart Association.

It’s the biggest heart walk the American Heart Association has had since 2018, and 12-year-old Payton Manley was front and center. 

“It’s super cool to experience stuff like this, and it’s just super cool to represent my friends and like spread awareness,” said Manley, 2023’s Heart Warrior.

When she was only nine years old when she found out she was having heart problems.

“When I would have episodes, I’d just be dizzy, like I would feel faint and I would just fatigue and it was just, like chest pain and that’s pretty much it,” she said.

After years of stress and two surgeries, Manley is feeling much better.

“I feel perfectly fine,” she said. “Like everything’s back to normal.”

Organizers said this year the event raised the most money and had the most participants since 2018 with several thousand people in attendance.

“I think the walk is important in two ways. One, it’s an opportunity to get together as a community and do something together to improve heart health in Kentucky,” she said. “And I think it’s also important just because of what it represents. I mean, it represents exercise and being out there and heart health.”

According to the American Heart Association, cardiovascular disease was listed as the underlying cause of death for under a million people in the U.S. in 2020.

Manley is cheering on those who are overcoming the disease.

“Just stay calm, don’t panic and you’ll get through it,” she said. 

Local businesses, volunteers and heart disease and stroke survivors coming together to raise awareness. 

This year, they are hoping to raise $900,000.