Michelle Smart
Michelle Smart-The Assessment & Training Company
Fundraising for Cardiomyopathy UK
Story
Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page. I'm taking part in this event on 23rd September 2017 to raise awarness of this condition and this charity as I have a close friend and colleague who has cardiomyopathy and is just 30 years old.
She is one of the strongest people I know, despite all of the ups and downs she encounters, she fights on through it and never lets it get her down....she is a true fighter and this is my way of showing her that i'm behind her all the way!
Here is a little more about the condition which i have taken from the Cariomyopathy fact sheet available from the follwoing website
http://www.cardiomyopathy.org/cardiomyopathy-information/cardiomyopathy-information
What is cardiomyopathy?
Cardiomyopathy is a disease of the heart muscle.
(‘Cardio’ means heart, ‘myo’ means muscle and ‘pathy’
means disease.) It isn’t a single condition, but a group
of conditions that affect the structure of the heart
and reduce its ability to pump blood around the body.
Who gets cardiomyopathy?
Cardiomyopathy can affect anyone, at any age. It is
thought to affect around 160,000 people in the UK,
which is around 1 in 500 people.
How cardiomyopathy affects the heart
Cardiomyopathy affects the muscle of the heart.
It can affect the shape of the heart, or the size and
thickness of the muscle walls. This then affects how
the heart works. The way the heart is affected depends
on the type of cardiomyopathy the person has.
What causes cardiomyopathy?
There are many possible causes of cardiomyopathy.
Some types are genetic: caused by a mutation in
the person’s DNA (genetic material) which affects
how their heart develops. Genetic conditions may
be inherited (passed on from parent to child) so
cardiomyopathy sometimes runs in families. Often
if one person is diagnosed with cardiomyopathy it
is recommended that their close family members
such as parents, siblings and children (known as
first-degree relatives) are tested for the condition too.
Other possible causes include viral infections which
affect the heart, autoimmune diseases (which affect
the immune system), and some medications (including
those used to treat cancer).
How is cardiomyopathy treated?
Although it can’t be cured, the following treatment
options aim to reduce and control the symptoms.
• Some people takemedicationto control their heart
rate (beta-blockers), to reduce the chance of blood
clots forming (anti-coagulants), or to reduce the
build-up of the fluid in the body that causes swelling
(diuretics or ‘water tablets’).
• Some people have adeviceimplanted (put into the
body during surgery) to control the rhythm of their
heart (called ‘pacemakers’), or to control the rhythm
and shock the heart if it goes out of normal rhythm
(called implantable cardioverter defibrillators or ICDs).
• Some people have surgeryto remove areas of
heart muscle if it affects blood flow from the heart.
• A very small number of people may need a heart
transplant
(a heart from a donor).