Heart disease, prevention and awareness, can minimise the risk from Australia’s biggest killer.

One Friday morning, late Nov 2010, I was involved in an early boxing session with a group at the local footy club. There was 10 mins to go and as usual we stepped it up a bit to finish strong. Suddenly, I lost all energy, felt sick, had trouble breathing, was light headed and couldn’t continue. I stepped out onto the balcony and grabbed some fresh air. My wife was with me and asked if I was OK. “Just give me a few minutes” I said, “I’ll have a little rest pop home and have a shower and cup of tea and get on with the day”. Well, I made it home to have that shower then collapsed on my back on the bed. Never got to the cup of tea. I was struggling for a breath and had pain and tightness around my chest. Luckily for me my daughter and wife were around and they rang an ambulance. It felt like an hour but apparently, in less than 10 minutes, the ambulance was there and I was treated and whisked away to the hospital. I was diagnosed as having a heart attack and then things happened quickly. Cardiologists, tests, angiograms and all of a sudden, all the family, my wife and children were all there. They told my wife it was the worst possible outcome. You would think by now I would start to get the message that something serious was going on. It all happens so quickly and so unexpectedly. Within hours I went from exercising with mates to suddenly being told I need a bypass operation. I said to the doctor,” OK I’ll go home and come back Monday”. His response was, “you’re not going anywhere”. I got to spend the weekend with tubes and electrodes all over me. Later on he said that if this hadn’t have happened now, within months I probably would have just collapsed. Dead before I hit the ground. They organised the cardiothoracic surgeon, transferred me on Monday to another hospital, on Tuesday opened up my chest and had a quintuple bypass. A quintuple bypass indicates that all five of the major vessels to the heart are diseased. I was a walking time bomb and the operation saved my life. I remember lying in hospital thinking why didn’t I see it coming? Why wasn’t I aware? Later on, I realised all the warning signs were there. That was the catalyst for starting Every Heart Counts. It took me a while to start to turn that dream into a reality. Every Heart Counts has been established to: Create a greater awareness of heart disease and the warning signs. Encourage better lifestyles and diets to help in the prevention of heart disease. Raise money to provide support and information to individuals and their families who go through the trauma of heart disease. We’re not doctors or researchers. We’ve been through it and we understand what it’s like. We had heart issues or it’s impacted someone in our family or close to us. That’s the other issue. It may be an individual who has an attack, they may live or die. The partner, their children, family and friends all feel the pain and anguish. I’ve been to others funerals and seen the devastation and loss to the family and community. If we can help prevent any of these deaths it will be worthwhile. There is no need for this “silent killer” to take as many lives as it does when it could easily be prevented with some awareness, information and focus on lifestyle and diet. PS I am not medically qualified. These is my knowledge and experiences. You should always consult a medical professional for proper advice.