As many of my friends and family know, in January of 2024, I suffered a heart attack as a result of an undiagnosed congenital heart disease. I was mid ENT procedure and I had reacted badly coming out of anaesthetic which resulted in me being admitted into the ICU of Bristol Royal Infirmary, where I was then transferred to the cardiac hospital and I spent over a month and half.

From the moment I was admitted to Bristol Heart Institute, a youth worker would come in almost every day. Pretty much every day, I did ask the youth worker to go away because I was so cooked up in my own emotions I had no idea how to talk about what I was feeling. Up until the last day before I had my big surgery, one of their youth workers came in and I had a really good conversation about what had happened, how I was feeling and what my next steps were. The main reason I nominate Youth at Heart and the Somerville Foundation is that even when most days I did not want to talk about how I was feeling or play games, they never stopped trying and that is thanks to the sheer determination of the team they had working at Bristol Heart Institute. I remember one time they spoke to my parents, helping them prepare for what was going to happen post surgery and how they could best help me on my journey to recovery.

For this, I appreciate everything they helped with and I will forever me grateful for all the help they provided to me and my parents as we pushed through what was one of the hardest periods of my life. Therefore, I would like to push myself, now that I am fit and well, to run my first 10k in around 4 years and do it in the name of my nominated charity.

Thanks for taking the time to read,

Adam Boukhchem

University of Bristol