Hearts & Souls poster featuring me!!
I’m again raising money in aid of HEARTS & SOULS having previously completed the London Bridges walk in 2017 and the Thames Valley Summer walk last summer, this time I will be running my first ever 10K race at the age of 61 ..... 25 years, 10 months and 1 day after my last race!
Hearts & Souls are a local voluntary run charity based in Wycombe hospital that fund the excellent cardiac rehabilitation classes which help around a 1,000 patients to recover from cardiac events each year in South Bucks.
This part of the rehabilitation programme is not funded by the NHS and relies entirely on charitable and legacy donations to keep it free at the point of use at a cost of about £25,000 per year. This is not some high profile national organisation but a small local charity who rely mainly on a small pool of those who have been through the progamme to help today's patients.
My own reason for doing this is that I hadn’t ran at all since the Wycombe half marathon in 1993 when I suffered a heart attack while out walking from Bledlow Ridge on 28th Dec 2016, this was my second heart event having previously been diagnosed with unstable angina and having an angioplasty with stent in 2013, it has been a slow but steady progress to get my fitness back to a level where I am now able to run this distance.
Following the heart attack I was treated in Harefield hospital where I had my 2nd angioplasty & stent and was again invited to the award winning cardiac rehab. in Wycombe hospital in Mar 2017, this was my second time so I knew what to expect.
I found that after my first heart episode the uncertainly in your own ability to carry out even the most mundane tasks like climbing the stairs, lifting the shopping or supporting the mighty Wycombe Wanderers makes you almost too afraid to even try, that you might be over exerting yourself and god forbid, that you will give yourself a heart attack – it’s a real fear. Attending those first rehab classes had rebuilt my confidence, given me the belief that I could get back to a normal life and that playing with the grandkids wasn’t life threatening and I wanted that same reassurance again, but this time make proper life-time changes to my routines & diet with more determination to improve my health & fitness so I wouldn’t be back in another 3.5 years.
And so, over the past 2 years I attended the 6 weeks of cardiac rehab; 12 weeks of FFIT (football fans in training, a diet and fitness lifestyle programme run by the Wycombe Wanderers Sports & Educational Trust - promotional video featuring my good-self); increased my step count from 3,500 to 15,000 per day; started out on the weekly Wycombe Rye 5km parkrun in Oct 2017 completing my 50th run just before Christmas 2018; rejoined the FFIT boys for a weekly circuit training and recently started to extend my running with support from the local running community with runs up to 15km. I’m now feeling the benefits through increased fitness levels, weight loss, lower cholesterol, heart rate & blood pressure and improved physical and mental well-being all helping reduce the risk and fear of another heart attack.
Two years of exercising and some of the amazing people I've met along the way all captured in pictures ... here
I have much to be grateful to the cardiac rehab, giving me the knowledge, belief, confidence and inspiration to go on and make these changes and so wish to return the favour and help those who are now facing that same uncertainty and fear about their own future by running the challenging mixed terrain and hilly ‘Ridge Off Roader 10K’ in May. There is a good reason entering this particular race as the start and finish line are exactly where I had my heart attack in Bledlow Ridge - it's pay back time!.
Please help me to raise as much money as possible to support this vital/invaluable/essential service, you never know when you or some-one close might be grateful for their help and support.
I support this charity with a passion but limit my fund raising to once a year so like to put in as much effort as possible to each one to get the maximum return, I make no apologies for constantly pushing this. I'm not going to set a time target on this run as I suffer with angina when under exertion which can be affected by the conditions on the day and adjust my pace accordingly, but I would hope to finish in just over the hour.
Please support this deserving charity at JustGiving: www.justgiving.com/fundraising/RunTheRidge-HeartsandSouls
Blog covering this story .... peterjemmett.blogspot.com/2019/10/heart-attack-to-10k-par...
Hearts & Souls poster featuring me!!
I’m again raising money in aid of HEARTS & SOULS having previously completed the London Bridges walk in 2017 and the Thames Valley Summer walk last summer, this time I will be running my first ever 10K race at the age of 61 ..... 25 years, 10 months and 1 day after my last race!
Hearts & Souls are a local voluntary run charity based in Wycombe hospital that fund the excellent cardiac rehabilitation classes which help around a 1,000 patients to recover from cardiac events each year in South Bucks.
This part of the rehabilitation programme is not funded by the NHS and relies entirely on charitable and legacy donations to keep it free at the point of use at a cost of about £25,000 per year. This is not some high profile national organisation but a small local charity who rely mainly on a small pool of those who have been through the progamme to help today's patients.
My own reason for doing this is that I hadn’t ran at all since the Wycombe half marathon in 1993 when I suffered a heart attack while out walking from Bledlow Ridge on 28th Dec 2016, this was my second heart event having previously been diagnosed with unstable angina and having an angioplasty with stent in 2013, it has been a slow but steady progress to get my fitness back to a level where I am now able to run this distance.
Following the heart attack I was treated in Harefield hospital where I had my 2nd angioplasty & stent and was again invited to the award winning cardiac rehab. in Wycombe hospital in Mar 2017, this was my second time so I knew what to expect.
I found that after my first heart episode the uncertainly in your own ability to carry out even the most mundane tasks like climbing the stairs, lifting the shopping or supporting the mighty Wycombe Wanderers makes you almost too afraid to even try, that you might be over exerting yourself and god forbid, that you will give yourself a heart attack – it’s a real fear. Attending those first rehab classes had rebuilt my confidence, given me the belief that I could get back to a normal life and that playing with the grandkids wasn’t life threatening and I wanted that same reassurance again, but this time make proper life-time changes to my routines & diet with more determination to improve my health & fitness so I wouldn’t be back in another 3.5 years.
And so, over the past 2 years I attended the 6 weeks of cardiac rehab; 12 weeks of FFIT (football fans in training, a diet and fitness lifestyle programme run by the Wycombe Wanderers Sports & Educational Trust - promotional video featuring my good-self); increased my step count from 3,500 to 15,000 per day; started out on the weekly Wycombe Rye 5km parkrun in Oct 2017 completing my 50th run just before Christmas 2018; rejoined the FFIT boys for a weekly circuit training and recently started to extend my running with support from the local running community with runs up to 15km. I’m now feeling the benefits through increased fitness levels, weight loss, lower cholesterol, heart rate & blood pressure and improved physical and mental well-being all helping reduce the risk and fear of another heart attack.
Two years of exercising and some of the amazing people I've met along the way all captured in pictures ... here
I have much to be grateful to the cardiac rehab, giving me the knowledge, belief, confidence and inspiration to go on and make these changes and so wish to return the favour and help those who are now facing that same uncertainty and fear about their own future by running the challenging mixed terrain and hilly ‘Ridge Off Roader 10K’ in May. There is a good reason entering this particular race as the start and finish line are exactly where I had my heart attack in Bledlow Ridge - it's pay back time!.
Please help me to raise as much money as possible to support this vital/invaluable/essential service, you never know when you or some-one close might be grateful for their help and support.
I support this charity with a passion but limit my fund raising to once a year so like to put in as much effort as possible to each one to get the maximum return, I make no apologies for constantly pushing this. I'm not going to set a time target on this run as I suffer with angina when under exertion which can be affected by the conditions on the day and adjust my pace accordingly, but I would hope to finish in just over the hour.
Please support this deserving charity at JustGiving: www.justgiving.com/fundraising/RunTheRidge-HeartsandSouls
Blog covering this story .... peterjemmett.blogspot.com/2019/10/heart-attack-to-10k-par...