What?

The Wacky Rally is a driving challenge that I have decided to take on, starting in Lille France (22/06) before making its way across 1200 miles over 4 days, taking in 6 countries and over 10 mountain passes on the way to the finish in Rimini, Italy 25/06).  With the challenge you are allowed to spend a maximum of £300 on a car so there is no luxury involved whatsoever as we found one for £200.

Why?

The British Heart Foundation (BHF) is close to my heart (no pun intended) and helped me through the toughest time of my life in 2016.  I wouldn't normally share my own story but since I feel this is a great cause to support and it may help others I will.

In late 2015 I was feeling tired and out of breath all the time so I  went for a second opinion as to what might be causing it as GP's had said I seemed healthy and couldn't understand it.

As I came out of the  CT scanner there was a cardiac specialist there that advised me I had potentially very serious issues with my heart and I needed to go straight into Bournemouth Hospital the following morning for a range of tests, my head was spinning.  Within an hour the next morning I was sat down and advised I had significant damage to the valves in my heart and aortic root and required urgent surgery.  As you can imagine I was in total shock and had never envisaged this could happen to me.

That's where I first came across the BHF on leaflets and then their Internet as I searched for answers and what would happen next.  Everything they provided was clear and in plain English which was reassuring.  After chemotherapy to reduce the inflammation around my heart the surgery in March 2016 took 7 hours and involved a mechanical aortic valve, a metal repair to the Mitral valve, a bypass and significant removal of scar tissue from the heart and aorta.  I can't imagine what my wife Natalie and family must have been feeling whilst waiting.

The recovery was hard but was eased by the BHF who were always there with guidance and stories from other patients that had been through the same and were inspirational as well as an active community.

These days I feel much stronger, just don't get too close as you'll hear my valve ticking :).  So now I want to give something back to a great charity which through their investments in research and support are making a real difference to so many lives by taking on this challenge

The BHF has helped halve the number of people dying from heart and circulatory disease in the UK but sadly every day hundreds of people lose their lives. It's only thanks to support from people like us that the BHF can create new treatments and discover new cures. £24 could pay for two hours of research by an early career scientist, but every pound helps so please give what you can to help me hit my target. Thanks!