And they are off!

It's been some time since I put an update on here.  It's not that I've not had any news to share with people, but more that I've been so busy I've not found teh time to sit down and get a blog post written.  I guess that the continued COVID lockdowns haven't helped either as days and weeks do have a habit of merging into one.

Anyway, since my last blog post in September last year, what have I been up to.  Firsstly, the half-marathin distance run in place of the Great North Run hasn't happened yet due to the iissue I had last year wirh beta-blockers, the recovery from my achilles injury and then the cold and icy winter we had.  Training for the London Marathon is ramping up however, and with the help of Ryan my personal trainer from Fresh4LifeFitness I am on track to get there very soon.  Ryan is great and has experience working with people with cardiac issues (and has been running some gentle fitness online sessions with Pumping Marvellous during lockdown).  If anyone is looking for a PT in Leeds I'd seriously suggest checking him out.

I've also been taking part in one of the COVID vaccine trials.  This is for the Novavax trial which should hopefully be approved soon and add another weapon against this awful virus.  I had two injections, three weeks apart, and will be having regular checkups over the next year.  I have actually been unblinded from the trial so know that I received the placebo, but I've since received my first dose of the Astra Zeneca jab but will continue being involved in the trial as they can get some really useful information from us regardless. I've also said that I'm happy to take part in any related trials (booster jabs etc) as it's vitally important  to continue research to keep us safe in the long term.

So, that's people more or less up to date, so what now?

Well, this morning see's the launch of the Pumping Marvellous Global Race To Beat Heart Failure.  This challenge will see Hear Failure patients, Cardiology Teams, families, supporters and friends join together and pledge their miles to virtually get Heart Failure around the world in order to raise awareness and vital funds to help improve outcomes and services for the Heart Failure community.  Heart Failure is a condition that is generally not that well known and understood by the general public.  Unless you are affected by it, either as a patient or as someone that knows someone with heart failure, then it's unlikely you'll know much about the condition which is awful when you consider that there are almost 1 million people living with heart failure in the UK alone (and that's just the ones that have received a diagnosis - the true figure is probably around double that). 

What we hope to do with this campaign is to inform people so they can recognise the signs of heart failure and access treatment earlier.  When I was first ill in 2016 I didn't know anything about heart failure so never even remotely considered that this was what was making me so ill.  If I had some knowledge about the condition that may well have spurred me on to getting to the doctors earlier.

So, how can you help?  Well, that's the easy bit.  Get over to https://pmf.enthuse.com/pf/rich-and-mikes-marvellous-marathon-team and join our team to pledge your miles.  If you'd like to fundraise too that would be amazing but there's no pressure.  You can of course, also pop a donation into our London Marathon fundraiser which you can find on the same page.  When you have signed up, don't forget to link your Strava account if you have one to log your miles.  If not that's fine as you can still log your miles manually (Strava really does make things easier though).

Hope to see you signed up soon!