I'm raising money for the British Heart Foundation's research and I'd be so grateful for your support. On the 24th January 2018, I lost my Dad to heart failure. To raise money, my boyfriend, Lucas and I are doing a skydive on the 17th July 2019 which would have been my Dad’s 54th Birthday. 

It first became apparent that my Dad was unwell in November 2017, he was becoming short of breath and his legs started to swell with fluid. Nevertheless, my Dad still went to work away even after asking him numerous times to stay at home and to see a doctor. When my Dad returned from work in the December, he was unrecognisable. He had gained 4 stone in fluid and everywhere you could imagine was swollen, so much so, it was weeping from his legs. It took 4 days to persuade him to go into hospital. On the 19th December 2017 my Dad was diagnosed with extensive heart failure and was started on treatment in hospital to get rid of the excess fluid. He was in hospital over Christmas and New Year where he barely made any progress however, he was discharged on the 5th January 2018 with a follow up appointment in May, an appointment he would never make. 

After being home for two weeks his condition started to worsen. The skin on my Dads legs began to break because of the fluid and they became sore and infected. His mobility and his breathing were severely affected, it took him around 10 minutes to get up the stairs because he was so overloaded with fluid and had to stop to catch his breath after each step. Seeing my Dad like this was devastating. With much concern, my mam called the doctor out to see him at home and immediately the doctor told us he needed to go back into hospital and so he was fast tracked onto the Coronary Care Unit (CCU). Again, my Dad recieved treatment to try and get rid of the fluid. 

On the 24th of January at around 7:30pm, we recieved a phone call from a Nurse on CCU saying that they thought he’d had a seizure and suggested we came in. My Mam, my Sister and I rushed to the hospital and we were not prepared for what we saw. My Dad was yellow and he was all wired up with an oxygen mask on surrounded by the Cardiac Arrest Team. He was so ill that he couldn’t drink water from a glass, I had to wet a toothbrush to refresh his mouth. After a couple of hours, my Dad wasn’t making any progress and his heart rate had increased from 138bpm to 180bpm despite being on an infusion. The doctor took my Mam to one side and told her that he would not be able to maintain that heart rate and they would not resuscitate him as it wasn’t feasible (DNAR). 

At 11:36pm on the 24th January, my Dad passed away peasefully in my Mams arms. I will always be grateful that I was there with him and that he was unaware he was dying. It is heartbreaking beyond belief that my Dad won’t be here through the many milestones in my life, he missed my 21st birthday, he will miss my graduation, my wedding, meeting my children. I wouldn’t want anyone to ever experience what my family and I have had to therefore, I would like to raise as much as I could to try and help the research for the British Heart Foundation.Thank you for visiting my page and supporting me in raising money for this brilliant charity!