Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

As you may know about 5 years ago I was unfortunate enough to get lots of blood clots in my legs and lungs, and almost died of a major pulmonary embolism.

Since then I have suffered from shortness of breath due to the build up of the old clots, and had also developed pulmonary hypertension which could have led to me requiring oxygen for the rest of my life.

Back in March I was operated on by surgeons at the world famous Papworth Hospital to remove the clots.  Only three hospitals in the world do this operation - a pulmonary endarterectomy - and possible complications are severe, with there being a 1 in 20 chance of suffering a heart attack, stroke or death.  I now have a large scar down my front but it's all I have to show for going through 10 hours of surgery which involved freezing me to 18 C, opening up my chest, stopping my heart, opening up the blood vessels to my lungs and removing the clots.

I have recovered more rapidly than anyone thought possible, only spending 36 hours in critical care and then being discharged from hospital after a week.  I spent three months recovering at home and was then back at work again in July.

I am incredibly grateful to the work that the Papworth team did, and the fact that they were prepared to take the risk of operating on me.  I always knew the risks were high, and that there might not have been any improvement in my breathing at all.  But the surgery has been a success and while I won't ever be fully back to my normal self pre clots, I'm not far off.

Over the summer I started running again, slowly at first and alternating with walking while my lungs got used to things again, and for the last couple of months I'ev been training for a half marathon, taking place at the end of November in Norwich.  This has been a massive challenge and I still haven't run the full distance but I am determined to get round! 

I'm hoping to raise as much money as possible to say thank you to Papworth and to help future patients in my position.  So please sponsor me....!