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, both privately and publicly, as gay. He goes on to praise the value of Pride Month, in raising awar...
Jun 27, 2025•36 min•Season 1Ep. 92
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 tireless supporters of the work of BHF. They know only too well the emotional rollercoaster of living with an i...
Jun 19, 2025•54 min•Season 1Ep. 91
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 life was turned upside down when Matthew himself died following a cardiac arrest at home, in the middle of th...
May 12, 2025•39 min•Season 1Ep. 90
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 at the University of Oxford. Robin’s clinical expertise is in the treatment of heart attack, and his lab works to...
Mar 13, 2025•52 min•Season 1Ep. 89
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 surgical procedure to buy the time needed for her to gain the strength for major heart surgery. But little Mai...
Mar 11, 2025•37 min•Season 1Ep. 88
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 she was on that day. She also talks about living life now with an ICD fitted, maintaining a positive...
Feb 12, 2025•30 min•Season 1Ep. 87
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 the University of Edinburgh. Joanna, who is among the top 10 most highly cited female researchers in...
Jan 09, 2025•57 min•Season 1Ep. 86
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 will need another operation in the coming years, but thankfully now this brave, bright, confident and kind l...
Dec 12, 2024•49 min•Season 1Ep. 85
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 had been no signs. Tom was seemingly fit, healthy and full of life – until the day he never came home....
Jul 31, 2024•35 min•Season 1Ep. 84
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 surrounding heart health, particularly among younger people. For over 60 years, British Heart Foundation has p...
Jul 10, 2024•38 min•Season 1Ep. 83
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, at 15, he enjoys an active, healthy lifestyle and is currently working hard towards his GCSE exams....
Feb 28, 2024•27 min•Season 1Ep. 82
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 incredible fundraising journey for BHF, Harry is determined to help other young people to speak more openl...
Feb 28, 2024•28 min•Season 1Ep. 81
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 October 2022 Sanj's condition suddenly deteriorated. Sanj suffered multiple organ failure and her condition bec...
Dec 14, 2023•44 min•Season 1Ep. 80
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 unexpected heart attack at the age of just 34. It was July 2020, a few months into the first national Covid...
Sep 25, 2023•37 min•Season 1Ep. 79
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 Coarctation of the Aorta. This is where the artery that carries blood from the heart to the rest of the bo...
Sep 18, 2023•31 min•Season 1Ep. 78
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 without gasping for breath. After discovering her heart rate was much higher than it should have been s...
Aug 31, 2023•26 min•Season 1Ep. 77
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, Dan's now realising long held ambitions which include performing stand up comedy! It's a compelling...
Aug 22, 2023•34 min•Season 1Ep. 76
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 path though he's now returned to his full and active lifestyle and is, in his words, "feeling better ...
Aug 14, 2023•24 min•Season 1Ep. 75
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 watching her husband fight for his life just outside the family home, and over the next few months s...
May 31, 2023•39 min•Season 1Ep. 74
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 lifeline during her recovery. Hina's story is one at the heart of the BHF’s This is Science 2.0 campai...
May 26, 2023•41 min•Season 1Ep. 73
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 her life by doing CPR until the paramedics arrived, and Sienna went on to be diagnosed with multipl...
May 19, 2023•54 min•Season 1Ep. 72
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 eight months after collapsing he got the shock diagnosis of Long QT Syndrome – an incurable and here...
May 19, 2023•35 min•Season 1Ep. 71
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 lifestyle adjustments he and his family have since had to overcome. Throughout his 'journey' though, resil...
Apr 19, 2023•25 min•Season 1Ep. 70
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 Childhood.) On this episode, Sarah Marsh from the BHF hears from Hannah how, despite suffering two cardiac arrests...
Apr 05, 2023•39 min•Season 1Ep. 69
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 he was to benefit from this minimally invasive form of surgery allowing quicker healing and a speedie...
Mar 27, 2023•27 min•Season 1Ep. 68
After her father Alan suffered a heart attack, Chloe was called upon to perform CPR on Dad but sadly he didn’t survive. In this episode Rob Underwood from the BHF talks to Chloe about her story of that day, how she managed during those desperate moments and the strength she's drawn on personally going forward since that time. She also tells how, some months later, on behalf of the family, she and her brother completed a fund raising walk across Scotland in memory of her father, raising £3,000 fo...
Mar 14, 2023•28 min•Season 1Ep. 67
After the devastation of suffering a heart attack whilst out cycling in remote countryside with his wife, Dilwyn remembers events leading up to and on that day. He talks about the urgent medical treatment he got and then the shock of being diagnosed with Familial Hypercholesterolemia (FH). A genetic condition where you have exceptionally high levels of cholesterol in the blood. As Rob Underwood from the BHF discovers in this episode, it's been both an emotional and inspirational road to recovery...
Mar 02, 2023•26 min•Season 1Ep. 66
Saskia has a love for the outdoors and particularly long distance running. At a young age though a routine scan revealed a mitral valve prolapse leading in later life, to mitral valve repair for her at 31. In this episode Rob Underwood from the BHF discovers how she coped through those difficult, early years, with regular hospital check ups part of her everyday life. Also how she overcame those uncertain times surrounding her surgery. Now though Saskia looks forward to a bright future ahead. As ...
Feb 17, 2023•22 min•Season 1Ep. 65
After the challenging recovery from his heart attack, Colin, a keen, active cyclist and runner, knew the physical signs were telling him that all still wasn't well. In this episode, Rob Underwood from the BHF, discovers how persistant he was in finding out the real reason which eventually led to further heart surgery. Colin emphasises the importance of always listening to your body even if you consider yourself to be leading a significantly active lifestyle. As a charity, the British Heart Found...
Feb 17, 2023•25 min•Season 1Ep. 64
After being diagnosed with a heart condition since just after birth, Lucy explains how she's coped with the tremendous physical and psychological challenges faced along the way. In this episode, Rob Underwood from the BHF talks to Lucy about her treatment journey from that very early age, which included undergoing the 'Ross Procedure'. She talks openly about the support she's received, along with her future hopes and aspirations, both from a health perspective and career-wise. As a charity, the ...
Feb 13, 2023•20 min•Season 1Ep. 63
