Come and join us for 4 hours of awesome club party workouts with our Cambridge Clubbercise instructors. Dance to all the club party anthems from the 90's to present day. You can do as much of the workouts as you like - choose your sets or challenge yourself to the full 4 hours.

This event is supporting the British Heart Foundation - a charity held close in many hearts.

To join us, visit http://app.gymcatch.com/provider/1609/events

On Friday 13th November 2015 was an ordinary day so I thought. However, by the evening I was in A&E at Addenbrookes hospital being told by a just as shocked doctor my blood tests had come back and I had suffered a heart attack. I was immediately hooked up to heart monitors and given a load of injections and admitted to the main hospital. I started crying at this point and felt like I didn’t stop for at least the next 6 months. I was young (40 years old) and I was female and looking around at the Cardiac ward I felt so out of place. After 3 days in Addenbrookes I was blue lighted to Papworth Hospital where on day 4 I had an angiogram. During the angiogram they said they couldn’t find any blockage but would look through my scans closer. I couldn’t get my head round the fact that I had had a heart attack so maybe this nightmare was nearly over and they had got it wrong. They then came and sat with me and explained I did have a heart attack and the reason they couldn’t find any blockage was because it was caused by SCAD (Spontaneous Coronary Artery dissection) and the tear had already started healing itself.

I was then allowed to go home the following day and the hardest part of the journey started. I was still in shock, I was scared and felt my life was over. I was given 8 different medications to take and told I would need to attend cardiac rehab. My first cardiac rehab session I was the only female and at least 20 years younger than anyone there. I couldn’t believe this was life.

My life did get better. My confidence came back. I stopped being angry at my body/heart and learnt to trust and love it again. I got back to my life, went back to work and travelled again and got back to exercise. A huge part of recovery was my family including my dear mum. My mum was always my biggest supporter and the person who made me take risks and push myself. Her constant encouragement got me to where I am today.

On Sunday 1st November 2020 my dear mum had a heart attack. I thought it was scary having a heart attack yourself but seeing someone you love have one is a totally different type of scared. My mum’s recovery was harder physically than mine and a couple of months later diagnosed with heart failure. I just wanted to wrap my mum in cotton wool and make her better. I knew I needed to support her though it like she did me. So, I went on her recovery journey with her. It was extremely unique experience to know exactly how she felt having been through it myself.

One day my mum was saying how she felt she had left her old self back at Papworth and someone she didn’t recognise had come home in her place. I said it felt like I didn’t get my real mum back either. I said I felt the same after my heart attack and it’s like I lived two lives the one until 13/11/15 and the one since. She then looked at me and said she didn’t feel like she had ever got her real daughter back. He both sobbed and hugged and I don’t feel I ever felt closer to my mum than I did at that minute. Something I had felt but found hard to explain to anyone at the time but yet here was my mum, my best friend, who felt exactly the same. I also felt so bad as I realised my mum and family’s life changed the day of my heart attack too.

On Monday 26th April 2021 my mum died suddenly in hospital. The worst day of my life. I had lost my mum, my best friend and biggest supporter. I didn’t think I could carry on and thought if ever my heart would dissect again, it would be now. Slowly I have learnt to live without my mum. I have learnt to carry on even on the hardest of days. I have learnt I just have to think what would mum be saying to me now.

I love going to clubbercise and I go to keep fit and keep my heart as healthy as possible. But I also attend classes for my mental health. It’s part of self care routine and helped so much since I lost mum. That is why on the 15th October 2023 what a better way to raise money for the BHF than 4 hours of fun dancing.

I will do this in memory of my mum Susan (Sue) Barlow the person with the biggest, kindest and most generous heart.

Any donations will be greatly received and thank you for the continued support of my amazing family (especially my Dad, Sister and my niece and nephew) and my amazing friends.