Hello!

My name is Georgia and for those of you that don't know my story, on 21st November 2023 my heart was stopped for a total of 8 hours, for me to be able to undergo open heart surgery (Ross Procedure) at Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital, which went on to save my life.

Without the incredible work of the surgeons, nurses and staff at Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital, my heart disease would have continued to deteriorate and with approximately only 2 years left to live, my time was running out but with the specialist knowledge and wonderful care given to me, I was able to successfully recover from life changing surgery and can now continue to live my life to the full, every single day.

Whilst I am extremely lucky and grateful to have recovered and can now begin to live a long and healthy life, some people are not so lucky. Heart and circulatory disease now accounts for one quarter of all deaths in the UK.

Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital is the only hospital in the North West of England which provides expert surgical services for heart and chest conditions, including procedures such as heart bypass surgery, valve repair/replacement, and lung surgery. They see 13,000 inpatients 70,000 outpatients and 30,000 virtual appointments every year. Without their specialist services, you can only imagine how many thousands of people suffering with chest and lung conditions, would go undiagnosed and untreated.

Now you are probably wondering why I am telling you all this information.. here goes! I am running the Great North Run on September 8th 2024. This will be my first ever half marathon and I will run a total run of 13.1 miles through Newcastle (a very hilly course I've heard!) whilst still recovering from open heart surgery, to raise as much money as possible for the Hospital that provided me the most amazing medical care. As Liverpool Heart and Chest hospital Charity is only small, they solely rely on fundraisers to help raise the money for life changing research, technology and medical care. The work the hospital charity does is incredible and you can find out where all their fundraising efforts go to by visiting their direct charity page - https://www.lhchcharity.org.uk/fundraising-focus

As you can imagine, this is a HUGE challenge for me but I am going to give it my absolute all and will be recording all my half marathon training runs on my Strava page (if you wish to follow me along the way) but will also post them on here too, to keep you all updated with my running journey!

Every single penny will go towards this life changing charity, one I can 100% vouch for and every little helps! If you would like to donate to such a wonderful cause, very close to my heart (literally!) I would be extremely grateful, however simply sharing my page to spread the word would also mean the world to me and keep me motivated with my training and fundraising!

Thank you so much for the support and for taking the time to ready my story. Together we can change the statistics and hopefully one day, heart disease won’t affect so many lives, like it did my own.

Lots of love, Georgia ❤ xx