How a Suit saved my life

When I collapsed for my initial out-of-hospital cardiac arrest when I was 20, it was at a train station in an Australian town called Caboolture. It was the closest train station to my home town on the Sunshine Coast, but had a reputation for being a rough neighbourhood, a town primarily occupied by people on welfare and social support, or

To the girl on the train

At my local train station where I caught the train to my Internship, there was a gorgeous girl who took the same train. Every day, I would try and get the courage to say hello, but couldn’t. One day, we were even seated opposite each other, and yet I still didn’t say a thing. For 3 weeks this carried on,

Red Bull Gives You…

Before my initial out-of-hospital sudden cardiac arrest, before I knew what Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy was or that I had it, and before I had an ICD — I was working at my first internship in the city. Every morning, I would hop on the 7:15am train to get to the office by 8:30am. At the final station, there was a convenience

The 8 Times I “Died”

These are the stories of the 8 times I died (well episodes of VT/VF 🙂 ) 1 :: Train Station :: 20 years old I don’t remember much about the initial cardiac arrest that started it all, only 3rd party stories from my family and friends who had to experience it for me, and some of the bystanders who were

All Better Now

Just before Christmas I got the results of my extra tests back. The good news is that the ablation was completely successful – I definitely don’t have WPW anymore! However, the tests did throw up a few little anomalies. It seems as though my heart has a mind of its own. Sometimes it’ll start racing for no reason – once

Parliamentary Reception

The beating heart of British democracy was certainly an appropriate place for the Cardiac Risk in the Young reception! And what a beautiful location. The imposing statue of Oliver Cromwell greeted me at security, paintings of significant moments in British history lined the corridors on the way to the reception. The room itself overlooked the Thames – it was so

Great Cake Day

I got to work early on the CRY Great Cake Day. I carefully opened two big cake tins, one full of coconut macaroons, each topped with a glace cherry and resting on a square of CRY rice paper, the other full of Deliciously Ella almond-and-sea-salt brownies. This was only my second week at this new job, so I was a

Making Sure

As it approaches a year since I had my ablation, I’m coming to the end of the extra tests my cardiologists wanted me to have to make sure my heart condition had been completely fixed. I had two exercise tests and an echo, which all seemed to show normal results, so I’m very much hoping I’ll get the all clear

WPW Recover and running the London Marathon

After becoming active and running my first half marathon in October 2014, I became unwell suffering from dizziness, tiredness and palpitations. A few weeks later , after a number of tests, the doctors told me they thought I had a condition called Wolff Parkinson White Syndrome. I’d never heard of it and at the time it didn’t strike me that

Living with ARVC and an ICD

6 days after my 26th birthday I went for a run one evening (15th June 2016) with a friend and a group of runners and I suffered a cardiac arrest after finishing the run. I have no memory of it it’s what I’ve been told by others. I had CPR performed on me at the scene and was shocked twice