Stories

It was a chance query to his GP to see a rheumatologist that led to an eventual diagnosis of heart valve disease for 53 year old Mike Addelman of Manchester. An avid cyclist and runner, the diagnosis was certainly a surprise but Mike is grateful for a lucky visit to have his spine checked and the doctor’s keen sense that something wasn’t right.

Aged 53, Mike was training for Insanity, an intensive fitness programme, as he had been doing for the past few years. Ordinarily, he has a low resting heart rate which will usually settle in a predictable way following a work out. However, one session near Christmas 2014 it settled just under 70, which struck him as unusual. He’d always monitored his heart rate closely, and explained to his wife he felt he was running at 85%. He began to get breathless, and climbing the stairs required extra effort. Something was clearly not right.

Mark Blatchly, Deputy Head Teacher and amateur athlete, lived a well-balanced, varied life with a healthy mix of career, family and marathon kayaking, until a shock discovery threatened to capsize everything. After decades of teaching others, he found himself learning the biggest lessons of his life: how to survive a terminal cancer prognosis, then heart valve disease.

On a recent trip to the US to support the American Heart Valve Voice, Heart Valve Voice UK CEO Wil Woan wanted to meet with a local patient to find out if their experiences differ from those of our UK patients. So he met with Natalie, 80, from Washington DC who found herself slowing down in 2017 while on a trip to Israel. She struggled to keep up and was frustrated that she was missing out on enjoying her time with her family. She later found out that her struggles weren’t a result of her age but that she had congenital heart valve disease and would require treatment.

Christine Greenland aged 71, had never been in hospital before and didn’t know that anything was wrong with her heart. Six years ago, after a heart murmur was picked up during a visit to a gastroenterologist, she was eventually referred to a cardiologist where she was diagnosed with a mitral valve prolapse. Only four months prior, Christine’s twin sister Katharine had been through a similar experience!

Katharine Greenland, 71, has always been relatively fit and active so when she was diagnosed with mitral valve regurgitation it wasn’t what she was expecting. However after her treatment her life has quickly gone back to normal, except for the fact that six months later her twin sister would also be treated for mitral valve disease!

In 2013 Geoffrey Pritchard, of North London was admitted to Watford General Hospital after experiencing an episode of atrial fibrillation and was diagnosed with pericarditis. Geoffrey received a pericardiectomy, and through the associated testing they found another issue lurking, mitral regurgitation.

​Howard Lockett has lived a full life, but has experienced some ups and downs when has come to his health. Having been diagnosed with Hodgkins Disease (lymphatic cancer) thirty years ago, Howard was surprised when he found out that he was up against another life threatening disease later in his life at the age of 63. This time around it was heart valve disease, aortic stenosis to be exact, and treatment would be needed as soon as possible.