Challenge Meets Challenge

The Bristol Heart Institute meets challenges every day by performing complex and complicated heart procedures saving lives, therefore.......

On the 16th of May 2022 (4 years after open-heart surgery in 2018) as a type 1 diabetic and heart attack survivor, I will be taking on the challenge of climbing Snowdon (3560 feet /1085m) to raise money for the BHI (Bristol Heart Institute) as part of the Bristol & Weston Hospitals Charity as a way of saying thank you for saving my life.

This to me is a major challenge, managing my diabetes throughout the climb and also making sure that my heart is physically able for this with the help of my medical team.

Having been diagnosed back in 2006  as a type 1 diabetic, I have been on insulin ever since.

On the 16th of April 2018 I suffered a heart attack while out seeing customers that sent my diabetes into DKA (life-threatening diabetic ketoacidosis), a serious complication of diabetes and then my kidneys started failing.

After going unconscious in A&E, I landed in intensive care for the next 3 days, a terrifying experience.

This then led to further investigations that revealed that I had a serious heart condition and on the 15th of May 2018 I had to have a 5-hour open-heart surgery operation to remove the sack around the heart that was severely calcified, the surgeon said at one stage he nearly thought I was inoperable.

For the 2nd time, I was in intensive care again and then high care. and then I had to have an ICD (implantable cardioverter-defibrillator) fitted 2 weeks later, on the 31st of May 2018, at that stage having spent 2 months in hospital.

Over the next month of June, I was still having bad symptoms of Ventricular tachycardia (VT or V-tach) a type of abnormal heart rhythm so on the 6th of July I had to have an ablation where they go in through the groin into the heart to treat the inside of the heart to stop these episodes of VT.

Having gone through all this, I feel a lot better and am now a lot lighter from losing a lot of water retention and weight from all the trauma weighing losing a total of just over 6 stone (43kg).

This has given me a completely different perspective on life as to what does matter regarding my health and fitness.

Thank you for taking the time to read my story and thank you for giving generously knowing that your donation will help to save lives.

THANK YOU!!