I'm running The Great Manchester Run for The Manchester Heart Centre at the MRI

Here's the story as to why....

On May 26th 2011 I had a USB sized box fitted in my chest just under my collar bone called an ILR. The purpose of this box was record my heart rhythm to potentially find out why I felt ill all the time and would collapse. In the early hours of May 27th 2011 I woke up feeling very ill and collapsed, that morning when the hospital looked at the ECG off the ILR they found my heart had stopped 13 times. In the space of 24hrs my life changed forever!!

Following this discovery I was diagnosed with a condition where the nerve that controls my heart rate and blood pressure doesn't work properly and at times would 'switch off' causing my heart to stop. So aswell as being put on medication it was decided I needed surgery to have a pacemaker fitted. Here starts my story of gratitude to the Heart Centre and Cardiology Wards at the MRI. My first pacemaker was fitted on the 7th September 2011, in theory you have it fitted and then are all good for on average 10 years at which point they change the battery. Sadly it didn't quite work out that way for me!

The first couple of weeks went smoothly and I felt band new, had loads of energy and no longer felt ill everyday. Gradually though my pacemaker started to become really obvious, my shoulder got more and more painful and all my skin flared up. Enter more specialists, unplanned trips to hospital and eventually surgery number two in Feb 2012. 

I recovered from Surgery number two and my pacemaker could no longer be seen (although you could trace the wire with your finger!). My scar this time refused to play ball and wouldn't shut properly with a tiny bit just staying open. Which brought my third trip to the cath lab for the wonderful Dr A Fitzpatrick (he's my incredible consultant!) to cut a bit of skin out and reclose the site in Apr 2012. My site stayed closed for a week and a half before opening again. By this point I was making many trips to the heart centre for them to monitor the situation and decide on treatment before eventually being admitted to hospital in July 2012 for more intense treatment. In July it was decided that the pacemaker needed to come out due to infection. So in August 2012 I had surgery number four to remove it. Coming round from surgery I felt like a bus had hit me and continued to feel like this for a month whilst my heart worked on its own and I waited for my body to heal up enough for another surgery to put a new pacemaker in. It was one of the longest mentally and physically draining months of my life.

Finally on 11th September 2012 I had surgery to have my latest pacemaker implanted. Recovery was slower than expected with me having to go back into hospital for a week due to complications from surgery. However over 18 months on from that day in may 2011, 5 surgeries, a few hospital stays and a lot of time and effort later I'm now well on the road to recovery and feeling good!!

I'm running the great manchester run for The Manchester Heart Centre as the team of people there and the cardiology wards are incredible. I have been and continue to be incredibly well looked after with people always taking time out to explain things to me and give me the best treatment. They must of been as sick of seeing me as I was of seeing them over the last year and a bit but at no point did anyone make me feel like an inconvinence instead I was made to feel safe and provided with a few laughs along the way. Without my triple A team (Adam, Amir and Ali) and all at the Heart Centre I could of had a whole different story. With their help though I'm alive and feeling well. They have given me my life back so I'm running to give them something in return!!

I'll be running the 10k on the 2nd year anniversary of where my crazy story began and I'm under no illusions that having spent the majority of that time having treatment and not exercising, it isn't going to be easy. I'm determined to do it though and would love it if you could support me by giving wahtever you can. I'm aiming to raise £1000 so please dig deep and show your support for The Manchester Heart Centre and me!!

Thankyou so much!!!

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