Hi, 

My name is Robbie Burns, and I am undertaking a challenge to raise money for Wessex Heartbeat. I plan to walk a half marathon distance from our home near Winchester to Heartbeat House next to Southampton General Hospital.

I was born in 1970 with a congenital heart problem, Transposition of the Great Arteries, and a Ventricular Septal Defect. As a child I twice  open heart surgery and this gave me a good quality of life. The surgery I had was not a fix but left my heart working the wrong way round, so the small right side of my heart which is meant to pump blood to the lungs pumped blood round the whole body.

The right side of the heart is not designed for this and over time my heart began to struggle and such I became less well.

The Adult Congenital Heart Team at Southampton did a magnificent job of keeping my heart going up until 2019 when it was becoming obvious that my heart was reaching the end of the road and as such, I was approaching the end of my life.

We took the decision to refer me to The Freeman Hospital in Newcastle to be assessed for suitability of a heart transplant. After a couple of months of continuous IV drug treatment to improve my heart function I was accepted onto the urgent heart transplant waiting
list in March 2020.

On the 25 June 2020 (Tamsin and my wedding anniversary) I had the call to say a potential heart was available, and the following morning I underwent the heart transplant.

Unfortunately, my post-transplant recovery has been long with a whole host of serious complications.

After my transplant I spent over 3 months in hospital with many readmissions to intensive care. This time was brutal, the physical and mental anguish was at times intolerable. It was a rollercoaster of nightmares, hallucinations, complete exhaustion yet terrible insomnia, discomfort, pain, irritability, anxiety, fear and isolation. As it was during the Covid Pandemic I could not have any visitors in hospital for weeks, not even my wife.

There were many times when I felt that being dead must be better than the life I was in. But with the support of the staff, family, friends and most importantly my wife things did improve.

Why walking a half marathon? It seems a challenging yet with appropriate training an achievable goal and it is one I stated when I was in intensive care just a few days after my transplant. As I have a new heart the challenge should be simple? If only things were that easy.

Having lived 50 years with an inefficient heart and then undergoing a heart transplant my body is far from perfect. I currently breath through a tracheostomy (a tiny 6mm tube in my neck), have severely damaged kidneys, scarred lungs and varies other lumps, bumps, aches and pains.

Why Wessex Heartbeat? Not only have I been treated by the Cardiac Unit in Southampton for the last 25 years, but I also had the privilege to manage the department. I have seen both from a professional and patient viewpoint the outstanding treatment and care they provide. Wessex Heartbeat are a crucial partner in enabling the department to be a world leader in cardiac care. The additional support and
funding they provide for patient care, research, staff training, family accommodation and welfare is invaluable. Something I have witnessing and personally benefiting from.

Tamsin and I would like to welcome people to join us for this walk and where you are able to contribute to Wessex Heartbeat. Please sign up to join us for all or part of part walk on the Wessex Heartbeat Website