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After being born with a hole in her heart, Angie Martin first had open heart surgery when she was a small girl. Fast forward 40 years and Angie's leaky valve began to deteriorate and needed urgent intervention. After being told she needed an operation, a pandemic stopped the world in its tracks. However, despite the pressures on the health service, and thanks to the team's brilliant work at Harefield, Angie received her life-saving treatment.

Heart Valve Voice is delighted to see today’s publication of NICE’s guideline on heart valve disease presenting in adults. The publication of these guidelines marks is a key moment for Heart Valve Voice, our patient community and future valve disease patients.

Heart Valve Voice welcomes the announcement from NHS England regarding the creation of 40 Community Diagnostic Centres (CDC). Heart Valve Voice has advocated the delivery of these services since Professor Sir Mike Richards released his report, and are firm believers that they will improve cardiovascular services immeasurably.

Since the inception of Heart Valve Voice, it has always been our intention to be a charity that promotes awareness of the condition, give a voice to those who have experienced it and improve the structures that determine the quality of care that patients in the UK receive. We have worked with policymakers throughout the past six years. Still, forming an All-Party Parliamentary Group for Heart Valve Disease was a watershed moment for heart valve disease patients in the UK. The report they have now published is a platform for policy change. 

Earlier this year, a group of heart valve disease patients were asked by the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Heart Valve Disease to share their experiences of valve disease treatment with the group. During the evidence session, the patients were asked about detection and diagnosis of the condition, as well as access to treatment and the information they were provided with. Angie Martin was invited to share her experince, after being diagnosed with heart valve disease as a child and treated during the Covid outbreak

I decided to contact my MP after seeing Heart Valve Voice's #JustTreatUs campaign and thought it important to share my story and the stories of other valve disease patients. So that evening, I reached out to my local MP, Tim Loughton. I was really surprised to receive a reply in just a few hours, as I’m very aware of how busy MPs are. I was thrilled that he got back to me and wanted to help support the #JustTreatUs campaign.