Parallel Hearts
Climb every Mountain
Where does the time go? Easter already and it’s been nearly 8 months since I last posted. Life has been busy with so many things going on both with work and more enjoyable things (although I love my job and am extremely lucky to have a good job that gives me flexibility).
The running has continued and I've signed up for my first 10K in July, which again, I am raising money for Pumping Marvellous. I’ve also started hiking again, which is something I enjoyed doing 30yrs ago. Only been out a couple of times so far but now the weather is starting to improve I’m planning to make it a regular thing along with my son James and a friend.
So, what was it that encouraged me to start hiking again? Well, that’s an easy one. Last year I was asked if I wanted to take part in a new awareness campaign with Pumping Marvellous called ‘Parallel Hearts’. This would involve going up to Mount Snowdon in Wales alongside some other heart failure patients, clinicians and a film crew. We also needed a family member or friend who would come along with us and climb the mountain while we would spend the day doing some filming. The idea was to compare the effort involved in climbing Snowdon with how we as heart failure patients feel on a day to day basis.
All this meant that at the end of September my brother Mike and I set off to Wales to meet up with the rest of the group. The weekend itself was great although a bit soggy. It was great to have time chatting with other people that live with heart failure and see how it affected us all differently but also with many similarities. Heart failure isn’t a one size fits all condition. Some of us find things much more difficult than others and I consider myself very lucky that my symptoms are a lot milder than others.
The campaign itself culminated with a premiere of the films at the Electric Cinema in Portobello Road in London. It was a great night seeing how the films were received and the impression it had had on the people who had been involved in bringing it all together.
Since then I’ve been concentrating on my running as my 10K approaches although I do need to make time to update this blog more often. I’ve also started becoming involved in a heart failure research study at the LGI (Leeds General Infirmary). For me, it’s important to become involved in things like this in the hope that it will help further understand heart failure and even help develop new treatments.
