February is Heart and Stroke month across the country.

Kate Chidester, the vice president of advocacy and research for Alberta, says this year they're looking at the growing burden of heart failure in Canada.

She says right now there are 80,000 Albertans living with heart failure.

"What we're finding is that more Canadians are surviving cardiovascular disease and that's very very positive, but more are developing heart failure and so we've improved diagnostics, we've got better medical management and heart failure patients are living longer," she says. "Our report is looking at the impact of heart failure and also what we can do to try make for a more hopeful future."

She says people with heart failure can be very frustrated and exhausted with repeated and lengthy hospital stays and what they want those patients, and their families to know is that research is happening and they want to encourage people to access health information so they can impact their own quality of life.

"People do look at the salt in their diets, they look at the fluids that they're taking in because often people with heart failure can accumulate fluids in their bodies, they can gain weight and feel bloated and puffy and they can be very exhausted," she says.

The cost of heart failure across Canada are estimated at more than $2.8-billion per year.

She says there are resources available at heartandstroke.ca/heartfailure.

Chidester says canvassers will be out across the province this month looking to raise funds for further research in heart attack and strokes.

Read the full report here www.heartandstroke.ca/heartreport