Faith O’Hanlon is a 17-year-old junior at Bishop Feehan High School who resides in North Attleboro, MA, with her parents and four sisters. Her younger sister, Scarlett, was born with a rare and life-threatening heart condition called Pulmonary Atresia with Intact Ventricular Septum. She has undergone two operations of repair. Faith was prompted to write "Princess Valentine's Perfectly Imperfect Heart," after watching her sister experience a great deal of anxiety with her most recent heart catheterization. Scarlett had expressed that the anxiety she had leading up to her catheterization was almost worse than the event itself. Together, with Scarlett's thoughts and Faith's words they created a book that aims to empower young children undergoing a heart catheterization procedure by providing age-appropriate details of the procedure in a child-friendly way. 

 

Published in April of 2023,  "Princess Valentine's Perfectly Imperfect Heart," has sold almost 1,000 copies nationwide and is gaining the interest of several local non-profits. Faith’s book has been donated to pediatric children’s hospitals across New England. All proceeds of the book go to Sister’s at Heart, a non-profit whose mission is to improve the lives of those affected by heart disease and stroke.

 

Faith hopes the children who read her book will be empowered by  Princess Valentine's character, and that it will help them feel supported as they face cardiac procedures.

 

Faith volunteers as a Teen of Impact for the American Heart Association, Sisters at Heart, It’s My Heart New England and has created her own initiative, Hope For Hearts, which spreads heart disease advocacy and awareness to her local community.