The Ticker Tapes

Soon after retirement from his much loved professional rugby league career, Keegan was shocked to be diagnosed with Dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) and Heart Failure. He shares his story here with Rob Underwood, speaking candidly about the mental and physical challenges he faced in acknowledging reality of the condition. Keegan also talks openly about the raw emotions he went through when coming out,...

Here on the Ticker Tapes, since we launched back in 2021, we’ve been lucky enough to have had compelling conversations with many people impacted by heart disease. We’ve covered everything from coming through major heart surgery to caring for someone with a heart condition, and on this episode we’re re-visiting a story first published back in the spring of 2023.   Jody and Jamie Crook are tire...

Emma Green’s personal heart health story actually started before she was even born. Her father Matthew tragically lost his own mum when he was only 13. She died very suddenly following a sudden cardiac arrest, and Emma remembers growing up, how birthdays and Mother’s Day were always difficult and very emotional for her beloved dad.   Then, just four days after Christmas in 2019, Emma’s own li...

Welcome to Alumni Reflections, in which we speak to inspiring and highly influential members of the BHF’s community of researchers, and get to know the person behind the science.    In this episode, we’re at the BHF’s Head Office in Camden, London where, in October 2024, BHF Director of Research, Professor James Leiper, was joined by Robin Choudhury, Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine...

All parents go on an emotional journey with their first child, but Maia Wiggett’s arrival into the world was nothing short of a rollercoaster. Born six weeks prematurely, Maia was just a day old when her parents Meera and Shaun were told two large holes had been found in her heart and without surgery she would die.   What followed was months of worry and work, with Maia needing an interim sur...

At the age of 38, Donna collapsed at home in the bathroom one morning with a cardiac arrest. The remarkably quick thinking actions of her children though, alerted a close neighbour who was thankfully able to perform CPR while they waited for paramedics to arrive. Now, having finally returned to work, Donna recounts her compelling story with Rob Underwood, recognising just how incredibly fortunate...

Welcome to Alumni Reflections, in which we speak to inspiring and highly influential members of the BHF's community of researchers, and get to know the person behind the science. In our first episode, we head to the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh where, in March 2024, BHF Director of Research, Professor James Leiper, was joined by Joanna Wardlaw CBE, Professor of Applied Neuroimaging at...

Alba Butler is only seven years old but she’s been through more in her short life than many of us may face in a lifetime. Diagnosed in the womb with a congenital heart condition, Transposition of the great arteries (TGA), Alba underwent her first heart operation at just an hour old. This was followed by open heart surgery lasting more than nine hours when she was just eight days old.   Alba w...

Tom Henson was just 23 years old when his life was cruelly and suddenly cut short in late July 2018. The sport-mad Sheffield United fan had been playing a game of football with friends after work on a summer evening when he collapsed and died having suffered a sudden cardiac arrest. Later it was discovered that Tom had a congenital heart condition called supravalvular aortic stenosis, but there ha...

At just 22, Faith, an online fitness coach and keen athlete, suffered a devastating heart attack while driving home after playing in a hockey match. In this episode, Faith bravely tells Rob Underwood her story and talks about the impactful heart related challenges she’s since faced along the way. She's also passionate about inspiring others on a similar journey, whilst raising awareness surroundin...

In 2016 then aged just 7, Harry suffered a sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) while playing in an after school football session. Remarkably, his life was saved by the school bursar who quickly responded and tirelessly performed CPR for around 15 minutes until paramedics arrived. Harry was diagnosed with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) and had an implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) fitted. Now,...

Please note this episode covers some potentially upsetting topics. Harry Marshall is a remarkable young man. By the age of just 24 he’d lost two of the people closest to him – his brother Tom and his mother Alison, who had been living with heart failure for more than a decade. For many of us these experiences would have left us broken but having used his own grief as inspiration to go on an incred...

In November 2022, at the age of 29, Sanj Kochhar received a heart transplant and was discharged on Christmas Eve.  In this episode with Yianna Theodorou from the British Heart Foundation, Sanj explains how she started experiencing symptoms of heart failure while studying to become a doctor. After 10 years of a slow decrease in heart function, despite compensating very well, one night in Octob...

Dr Salman Uddin is a GP who has devoted his working life to providing care and support for patients in the multi-ethnic community of Tower Hamlets, London, where he himself was raised. The father-of-two is passionate about encouraging people of all ages, religions and backgrounds to speak more openly about heart health.   This became even more important to Salman after he himself suffered an...

In the autumn of 2022 Helen and her partner Joe were excitedly awaiting the arrival of their first baby, but at the 20-week scan they started down a path they never thought they would be on. A potential issue was picked up with their baby’s heart. Eventually specialist Dr David Lloyd, whose incredible work into foetal heart development is funded by the BHF, would diagnose a condition called Coarct...

In August 2022 Macy Allen turned 18. A busy hairdressing apprentice with a second job in a pub and hectic social life with friends and her boyfriend Will, Macy was looking forward to another year of living her life at 100 miles per hour. Instead, at the end of October, life changed for her forever. Macy became seriously ill very quickly, and was suddenly unable to even climb the stairs at home wit...

Dan never dreamt he'd be receiving a heart transplant in July 2021 having just turned 40. In this episode with Rob Underwood from the British Heart Foundation, he explains how he’d lived with a heart condition since his mid 20s. But it deteriorated rapidly in the six months or so before his operation to the point where he spent eleven unforgettable days on life support. After his recovery journey,...

Chris was enjoying a fulfilling, active retirement, particularly relishing the chance to continue taking part in his weekend park runs. In this episode with Rob Underwood from the British Heart Foundation, he nevertheless describes how he was faced with the devastating news of his heart attack, then the subsequent realisation of unexpected triple bypass surgery. After following a steady recovery p...

On the evening of March 1, 2022, Stuart Waters got home from work and took his two children Sadie and Jude to football training – just like any other Tuesday. Little did he know that later that evening he would suffer a sudden cardiac arrest at the wheel of his car, altering life forever not only for himself, but his wife Leanne, his son and daughter. In the space of a few minutes Leanne was left...

When mum-of two-Hina was just 36, the joy of preparing for Diwali with her young daughter turned to fear in an instant when she suffered a heart attack out of the blue. In this episode, Ruth Huntman from the BHF talks with Hina about coming to terms with having a heart attack at such a young age, being able to reach poignant family milestones she thought she may never see, and why the BHF was a li...

Tuesday, 3 August, 2021, began like many other days for busy parents Jody and Jamie Crook, and their children Theo and Sienna – but just hours later the world as the family knew it had turned completely on its head. Sienna, then just 14 months old, suffered a sudden cardiac arrest on the way back from an outing to the park with mum Jody, her brother, godmother Kaylie and her children. Kaylie saved...

In April 2021,18-year-old Guy was enjoying a day out on the golf course with a friend when the unimaginable happened. The athletic, seemingly healthy teenager had no inkling that in minutes his life would be hanging in the balance after he had a sudden cardiac arrest out of the blue. Thanks to the quick actions of a fellow golfer who was trained in CPR, Guy survived. He was fitted with an ICD and...

Since a teenager, Vipan has always exercised regularly, a discipline which in later life brought a welcome release from his day to day work demands. At the age of 45 though he unexpectedly suffered the first of two heart attacks. In this episode with Rob Underwood from the BHF, he reflects on the initial realisation of what happened to him. He also talks about the challenges and significant lifest...

Please be aware that this episode of the Ticker Tapes discusses the impact of child loss.   For busy mum-of-three Hannah, the events of one Saturday afternoon in November 2021 would change the course of her life and that of her family’s journey forever. Hannah and her husband Keith lost their beloved youngest son William – then just 21 months old - to SUDC (Sudden Unexplained Death in Childho...

As a teenager, Nathan always felt his heartbeat was abnormally strong. Despite regular assurances though that it was stress and anxiety related, he persisted in searching for what he believed to be the reason. Eventually he was diagnosed with a leaking bicuspid aortic valve resulting in keyhole replacement surgery. In this episode, Rob Underwood from the BHF hears from Nathan about how fortunate h...