Thank you for visiting my page.  I have recently been diagnosed with a small hole in my heart, but I have been assured that I can still run a marathon!  As a thank you to all of the heart specialists who have helped me on this journey I’m raising funds for the British Heart Foundation.  The BHF has helped halve the number of people dying from heart and circulatory disease in the UK and every donation helps to continue their research to create new treatments and cures.  Thank you for giving what you can to help!

My heart journey:

In February 2019 I had a routine check-up with my GP who noticed a faint echo when listening to my heart. She referred me to a cardiologist for an echocardiogram or ultrasound scan of the heart.  The results of the echocardiogram were that I may have a PFO - a patent foramen ovale - a hole in the upper heart chambers that didn't close the way it should after birth. But the cardiologist concluded that the results were inconclusive and referred me to another specialist for further tests.  I was training for a half-marathon at the time, so I asked if I should continue with this, ‘Oh yes, please continue with your activity as normal’.  I was put on a waiting list and six months later I had another echocardiogram, the results suggested a possible hole in my heart, but were also inconclusive.  Should I continue with my running?  ‘Yes, you should be fine’.  

This cardiologist referred me for a cardiac MRI scan and a 24-hour session with a heart monitor strapped to me. This coincided with my work’s Christmas do - so I chose to wear a high-necked a-line top that disguised the monitoring machine and tubing that was wrapped around my shoulders and torso!  This was in December 2019, so I was expecting to be invited to an appointment to hear the results of the tests in early 2020. 

2020 came and with it the spread of a new threat, Coronavirus.  As the world started to close its doors, the NHS had to keep its open, despite dealing with the unknown of this new disease.  Understandably, the investigation into my possible heart condition was not top priority, so I was told, ‘you do not require an appointment at this time.  You will be contacted in 3 months’ time with a further update which will be dependent on how the national situation develops’.  The national and global situation did develop as we all learned how to stay away from Covid-19, from each other and as close to home as possible. I had started to train for the Stockholm Marathon at this point, and was getting increasingly anxious on my usual running route, which had been my quiet sanctuary, sparse of people and close to nature.  As lockdown rules allowed, more people started to populate this space for their daily walks and I became self-conscious of my presence as rumours were spreading that runners were a particular threat of spreading Covid as they exhaled.  I made sure to give walkers an excessively wide berth as I passed.  My anxiety symptoms of shallow breathing worsened and I know I started worrying about the potential heart defect.  On particularly anxious days I wondered whether I really should be running, was my shallow breathing actually a symptom of a heart problem?  I tried to remind myself that the cardiologists advised that I could continue running and often my runs became about reassuring myself and working on regulating my breathing. 

Eventually I ran the Stockholm Marathon virtually in September 2020 and IRL in June 2022.  In December 2022 I was invited back for another echocardiogram and bubble test where they pumped saline between my heart chambers to see if the bubbles from the procedure would escape through the possible hole.  A few lonely bubbles did, finally concluding that, Yes I do have a small hole in my heart. The cardiologist reassured me that this was a very common condition, 1 in 4 people actually have a PFO and go through their lives without ever knowing about it.  He suggested that I put this behind me and continue living my life without worrying about this small hole in my heart.  Despite the uncertainty and the long wait for a conclusive result, I am grateful for all of the staff who continued to look for an answer.  I’m also grateful for all of the research into PFOs that reassures me that I and other people with this heart condition can live our lives without it impacting our everyday.