“I stayed in bed for a year…” Inspiring real life story
...but when she got up after a health scare, Marcia embraced life!
Halfway round the supermarket, a sudden pain shot through my chest. My partner, Wilf, was just a few steps ahead but I couldn’t call out to him. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t move, I was so dizzy I thought I would pass out. It felt as if there was an elastic band tightening around my heart.
As shockingly painful as the feeling was, it soon passed. I went to the doctor who sent me to hospital for tests. Three days later I was still there, hooked up to monitors, giving blood samples.
Doctors were in agreement something had happened. It wasn’t a heart attack, but they couldn’t tell me what it was.
“You’re no more or less likely than anyone else to have a heart attack now. Go enjoy your life,” the consultant said.
I couldn’t. As far as I was concerned, I was dead and buried. I was convinced that every little niggle was the end of me.
I was too scared that I’d die to risk living my life. So instead, I went to bed. And that’s where I stayed for a year.
Work, home, bed, work, home, bed. On repeat. I kept up my job as a traffic operator, but refused all social invitations.
When my three sons, three stepsons, two sisters and 14 grandkids visited, I’d have a cup of tea with them. But I didn’t dare do anything more.
After a year, I was watching people on telly try zip wires and assault courses and thought, they’re enjoying themselves and I’m watching.watching I was waiting for the day I was proved right and I did die. Which was ridiculous – if I died, I couldn’t very well say “told you so”, could I?
Soon after, my niece, Mary visited. She seemed a bit down and I knew what she needed was what I needed too – some fresh air.
“Let’s get some exercise tomorrow morning,” I said. We signed up to join Simon’s Heroes, a local children’s charity who organised free Sunday morning training sessions.
When we arrived, even climbing the 12 stairs to the meeting place had us gasping for breath.
After our workout, I ached so much Wilf had to tie my shoelaces for a week.
Nevertheless, next week, we were back. We went from Sunday morning fitness sessions to circuit training, park runs and even completing the Three Peaks Challenge – all raising money for Simon’s Heroes.
I learned to swim and cured my fear of birds
I wrote a bucket list. I wanted to join a fitness club, try a fun run, a Race for Life, a sky dive, a balloon ride and a treetop adventure. I announced I was taking all my grandkids on foreign holidays, booking trips to Lanzarote, Tunisia, Gran Canaria and Disneyland Paris.
I learned to swim and cured the fear of birds I’d had since childhood. I got myself a personal trainer, Matt, who looked at my bucket list and remarked, “Marcia, isn’t it a bit ambitious? You’ll never get to the end.”
But that was the point. I’d keep adding new adventures forever.
“I never want to get to the end of the list and go back to not living life,” I explained.
I’ve made more memories in the last two years and felt more alive, and more scared, than ever. Nothing will ever beat the feeling of sitting on the edge of a plane ready to leap into the sky. Then I was falling through the air, the ground racing towards me. It was the most exhilarating thing I’d ever done.
My family all tell me I’m livelier, happier and chattier now. My diary is bursting with activity and I’m taking some of the grandkids to Ibiza this year. I’ve made so many new friends and reconnected with old ones.
There’s no point playing it safe. Life is there to be lived for as long as you’re lucky enough to have it. These days, I only go to bed when I’ve made sure I’ve made the day count. Marcia is running a marathon and raising money for Simon’s Heroes – WWW.JUSTGIVING.COM/FUNDRAISING/ MARCIASMARATHON HTTP://SIMONSHEROES.ORG.UK