Ihadchestpainsand feltdizzybutcarried on,didZumbaandran afterthekids..aweek laterIwasrushedto hospitalandtoldI’d hadaheartattack

pain was at its worst in the morning but as the day went on, it would ease. “When the pain did come, it would come in waves but then disappear again. Then came the pins and needles, initially just in one arm but as the week progressed, it spread to both.” Colette, who is married to Craig, and mum to Emma, five, and Mark, three, spent most of the Wednesday in bed. She felt slightly better on the Thursday so went along to the first session of an energetic Zumba class. She said: “I was by far the youngest person there and couldn’t understand how I felt so unfit. I went home feeling very light-headed and nauseous, but after a nap, I felt better.” On the Friday evening, Colette went to a yoga class. She said: “I felt fine during the class, but on my way home, the nausea came back, as well as pain in my shoulder. I thought I must have pulled something so took a couple of paracetamol and went to bed.” he next morning, despite waking with a heavy pain in her chest, Colette took her daughter to a tae kwon do class.

She said: “I started to feel hot and sweaty and the pins and needles were getting worse.

“When we got home, my husband suggested a trip to Ikea and I thought it would be a good distraction. But when we got there, I remember looking around and everything was a big blur.”

Colette told her husband she needed to go home, where she went straight to bed.

When she woke up, the heavy feeling in her chest had worsened so she called NHS 24 for advice.

They sent an ambulance which rushed her to Edinburgh Royal Infirmary.

An ECG showed no sign that Colette was having a heart attack but heart attacks caused by a SCAD don’t always show up.

Further tests revealed she had suffered two small tears to the arteries of her heart. Colette, who must now take heart medication for the rest of her life, said: “When I first arrived at the hospital, I felt like a complete fraud and after the ECG showed no sign of me having a heart attack, I was told I was likely suffering from indigestion.

“But when my blood tests came back, everything changed.

“SCAD heart attacks don’t present in the usual way – I wasn’t overweight, I didn’t have high cholesterol, I had always been reasonably fit, so didn’t tick any of the boxes of being at risk of having a heart attack.

“My heart looked healthy, apart from having these tears in the artery.”

Colette said being diagnosed with such a life-threatening condition initially left her feeling very scared and alone.

She has since found support from the charity BeatSCAD which aims to raise awareness of the condition and raise money for research and treatment.

She said: “There are about 50 other SCAD survivors living in Scotland but there may be many more who have been wrongly diagnosed.

“I still have a lot of unanswered questions – what caused my SCAD and could it happen again? But I’m trying not to live under the shadow of what happened and I’m determined to get on with living my life to the full.”

Margaret Davies, BeatSCAD patient lead for Scotland, said: “SCAD cannot be prevented or predicted, which is why it’s so important that more research is carried out.

“No magic pill exists to prevent it happening again so people who have had a SCAD are left living in fear that it will happen again.”