Wear It! Beat It! Support Heart Research

Six months ago this past Wednesday, the acid-reflux I thought I’d been suffering from all weekend was getting almost too much to bear and Alison convinced me to go to Keydoc to try and get some prescription ant-acid. The service at Keydoc was, frankly, terrible but the doctor did one good thing, in telling me to go to the hospital for a ‘blood test’. Kettering General A&E had no idea what to do with me but, thankfully, they were helpful, effective and very thorough and by 2am I was in the Coronary Care Unit. I went into theatre the next morning, had an angioplasty to fit a stent and was released later that day.

Six months - where did that time go? I was lucky, in that it wasn’t a massive heart attack and I received excellent medical attention, so I listened to the advice the nurses gave me and made changes in my life. All changes for the better I’m glad to say (the hospital were so pleased with my progress, in fact, they discharged me after three months), making me fitter, happier and a lot lighter than I was.

This, therefore, is obviously very close to my (ahem) heart...


The British Heart foundation was founded in 1961 by a group of medical professionals, who were concerned about the increasing death rate from cardiovascular disease. They wanted to fund extra research into the causes, diagnosis, treatment and prevention of heart and circulatory disease.

It is a major funder and authority in cardiovascular research, education and care, and relies predominantly on voluntary donations to meet its aims. In order to increase income and maximise the impact of its work, it also works with other organisations to combat premature death and disability from cardiovascular disease.

From my point of view, the BHF and its nurses were brilliant and the gym - run by Iona and her colleagues at Kettering General Hospital - was a great way of getting me back into exercise and giving me the confidence that I could push myself physically and wouldn't drop down dead if I did so.

My condition is called a NSTEMI, which is classified as "a shorthand medical term for non-ST segment elevation myocardial infarction" and a stent was fitted to combat a flow limiting coronary artery.