Last year (2024) I was diagnosed with a heart arrythmia that required two procedures to fix over the course of about 10 months. Prior to this I was fit and healthy and had never had any real signs that I had any issues with my heart.

Needless to say, that this really sucked.

The procedures were catheter ablations which means that a probe is inserted through a vein in your thigh and up into your heart and the tissue that is causing the electrical fault is burnt away so it can’t “Short Circuit” and interfere with the heart rhythm anymore.

This did not go smoothly. On average it takes 11 seconds to correct an Arrythmia in this way. Over the two operations I had, 29 minutes of “burning” had to be done.

Thankfully I seem to have made a full recovery and am back to being active, fatter and slower than I was before, but enjoying every minute of it.

I’ll be running the Snowdon trail marathon with some close friends and my brother (who also had the same procedure 3 years ago) to raise money for Cardiac Risk in the Young.

For those of you who know about these things or want to know more, I was suffering from very frequent bouts of Super Ventricular Tachycardia and Atrial Tachycardia. Two or three times a day for this entre time and was on drugs to help control my heart rhythm for this period which also had the effect of altering my mood and ability to feel anything.

I wouldn’t wish the uncertainty and anxiety that comes from waiting to find out what’s wrong with your heart on anyone. I was diagnosed with one of the “safest” arrythmias (IE lowest risk of clotting, heart failure or stroke) and it very nearly broke me. The work CRY do can help prevent anyone having to deal with this as well more importantly as helping to prevent families lose children to diagnosable issues and preventable deaths in the future.

CRY is sadly, mostly funded by memorial funds for young athletes who pass away from undiagnosed heart conditions. So positive fundraising efforts go a long way to show the families that people care about preventing others having to go through their pain.