On Sunday 7th April I have decided to take part in the Health-on-Line run on bournemouth bay as both myself and my dad were diagnosed with a condition called Familial hypercholesterolemia (FH) which is a hereditary condition, caused by a defect on chromosome 19. Which means unlike everyone else we don’t get rid of our ‘bad’ cholesterol we keep it and it builds up around our main arteries and blocks them. There are two forms of FH and unfortunately, we both have the most severe form. This means that we have the same concerns with our heart as 70/80 year olds do. Monthly blood tests, medication and consultations with FH specialists and thankfully I was diagnosed early, but unfortunately for my dad this wasn’t the case, they detected this when he was 40 at a check up by the doctors but by this point it was too late and on May 8th 2017 he had a heart attack.

Ironically his symptoms began when he was at the gym and thankfully he was there and took the advice from the amazing team at ArenaFit, he was planning to sleep the pain off but little did we know, he wouldn’t have woken up. With one valve entirely blocked and the remaining two the majority were blocked, he had a stent fitted on arrival at the hospital which was fitted through the wrist in order to hold the artery open and allow the blood to flow more freely. The heart attack did unfortunately leave him with heart disease, there is no cure for heart disease, similarly to FH but it is being carefully monitored and treated with medication. His recovery was miraculous, I was astonished how he went from 0-100 in a matter of months and for that I could not be any more proud.

 At that point I realised that when you think or feel something, to say it or to show it because you don’t know when the chance might be taken away from you, and you’ll be forever wondering ‘why didn’t I’ or ‘what if’ I’m thankful and so lucky that he was at my prom, there for me through my exams, my 16th birthday and results day. But not as many people are as lucky as us, some parents don’t get to see their children grow up or be there throughout their achievements. So help me in fundraising for the British heart foundation and beat heartbreak forever. 
Thanks for visiting my page. I'm raising money for the British Heart Foundation's research and I'd be so grateful for your support. The BHF has helped halve the number of people dying from heart and circulatory disease in the UK but sadly every day hundreds of people lose their lives. It's only thanks to support from people like us that the BHF can create new treatments and discover new cures. £24 could pay for two hours of research by an early career scientist, but every pound helps so please give what you can to help me hit my target. Thanks!