Stories

Roger Black was diagnosed with an unidentified murmur whilst at school. Now, after a career which saw him win Silver Medals at the Olympics and Gold medals at The World Championships, Roger is beginning to think more about his heart valve disease story.

Ian Brown, a 52-year-old football fanatic and avid fisherman, has been married to his beloved wife Kay for 28 years. Together with daughters Emma and Sophie, they faced his heart valve disease challenge by finding strength in unity and family. Their story begins in the year 2000.

During March of 2017 Lisa was receiving physiotherapy for her Achilles Tendinitis and started experiencing symptoms of joint pains in her elbow and knees. The physiotherapist suggested that she go to her GP for a check up. Blood works were done and an inflammation was noted however nothing was done about it.

Since retiring proud grandad of nine Rob Turner has been an avid explorer of the UK and an intrepid traveller of Europe. Rob had heart a heart murmur over ten years ago during a routine GP check.

Daniel Colgan was first diagnosed as a teenager with heart valve disease. The disease was discovered by accident when he was in hospital for an unrelated sport injury. Fast forward a decade and after being asymptomatic for most of his life. Suddenly Daniel started to experience new symptoms and went down hill dramatically.

David Blair believed he was at the top of his health when he got diagnosed with heart valve disease. He had simply put his symptoms down to getting older. Whilst training to complete the difficult cycle from Lands End to John O’Groats in ten days. David attended a routine check up at his GP in the summer of 2018 just and was diagnosed with aortic stenosis. Now a year on, David is back on the bike with a new energy and ready to complete the challenge of cycling across the UK.

Today we launch European Heart Valve Disease Awareness Week and our message is clear, if we increase awareness of symptoms and detect the disease early, the quality of life and treatment outcomes are very good. However sadly many people across the UK don’t get the treatment in time.

It was during a company health check in 2000 that Alan discovered he had a heart murmur. After being told it wasn’t serious it was left alone until 2010 when Alan started to receive an annual ECG (Echocardiogram) to check on the progress of the disease. Due to his leaky valves, this resulted in Alan’s heart becoming enlarged which could only be resolved through surgery. In 2016 Alan underwent open heart surgery and received a mechanical valve for both his mitral and aortic valve.