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GEORGE GIBSON (DAD)'S STORY
Last spring as my father (aka George) walked down to church, he felt a tingle in his left arm. Next time he was at the Doctors, he mentioned the tingle, the Doctor sent him for a few tests which revealed he had classic symptoms of angina. He was then told he should go and have a test at Blackpool Victoria Hospital where they inject some dye into your bloodstream and cheque the artieries around the heart. First quandry.... wait a few months for the NHS waiting list to come up trumps or stump up the £1,500 to go next week! George was lucky enough to be able to make that choice and decided to go sooner rather than later.
The dye test revealed one artery 90% blocked, one 70% blocked and another 50% blocked (I think it was this, I will correct this bit once he has read the site!) Bearing in mind my Granddad (George Senior) had died of a sudden heart attack at 74 (Dad was 72 at this time) it seemed to be that the Gibson Heart needed a major service!
Quandry number two... you are then given the option of joining the NHS waiting list again or queue jumpimg again by depositing £15,000 to have the operation when you want it by the same surgeon in the same hospital just more quickly.
This is the one of the main reasons I decided to to do something about this. My Dad was up until now in great health, he had a hip replacement a few years ago, and had recently succumbed to a motorised golf trolley, he drinks minimally and has never smoked, he was at a time of his life where he had planned well for retiremnt, had paid his taxes at all time during his 50 odd years of work and was now faced with a decision of either treading water having a greatly reduced quality of life whilst he waited to get to the top of the waiting list or paying £15,000 of his retirement funds to jump the queue.
I suppose I should be grateful in that at least he had the option. Anyway things did not then go well at all. George suffered a minor heart attack followed by another couple of "funny turns" Looking back now, these may have been a blessing in disguise as this put him right up the waiting list! So the way the system works, you can either pay now, wait 18months or so or nearly pop your clogs to get to the top of the list.
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THE CARDIAC UNIT AT BLACKPOOL VICTORIA HOSPITAL
George was finally admitted under the care of Mr. Milner on December 1st 2002. After a pretty grim Autumn where he drove my mum (Anne) potty complaining about her driving and making copious notes about any twinges he felt along with the colour, dimensions, weight and general description of all the vast array of drugs he had to take.
Open heart surgery is now classed as a routine operation, however it is still major surgery, and not something you like to think of your nearest and dearest going through. But George looked better straight away, as soon as I saw him he looked to have colour back in his cheeks (although it was probably the drugs!) and his recovery was rapid bearing in mind what he had been through.
Apparently Mr. Milner was at that time working seven days a week doing major surgery after major surgery. What a job,.... to make such a difference to to so many peoples lives! Why are there not more people doing this to share the workload and keep the waiting lists to a minimum?
THE DECISION TO GET UP AND DO SOMETHING!
Bearing in mind the above, I am sure you can understand my motivation for wanting to try and raise a bit of charity money as a way of saying thankyou to the British heart foundation and the Cardiac Unit at Blackpool Victoria hospital. Heart disease seems to run in our family unfortunately, so I thought I could try and kill two birds with one stone, a) to get fit so I would hopefully not need the assitance of the British heart foundation as soon and b) to try and raise a bit of cash for them.
It was Christmas, we had consumed a couple of glasses of wine, my brother-in-law and I were chatting, we were both equally poor cyclists at the time, the highlight of our year being the annual Manchester-Blackpool charity ride. We had talked about the c2c and other such distant things, but once I mentioned le-jog, the idea gathered pace. Unfortunately Ian had to withdraw in March because a football induced knee injury wouldn't go away (or so he says!) but by this time I had put in too many miles not to go ahead with the plan!
So here I am now, on the brink of the biggest challenge of my life, I hope you follow my progress, and that I do not let everybody down.
Thanks for reading, please e-mail me if you would like to sponsor me
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