Wife and son set up heart group in memory of father
A WOMAN who lost her fit and healthy husband without warning to a serious heart condition is launching a support group for other sufferers.
Ann Harrison-Power is working with her son Elis Power – who also has the life-threatening condition – to bring people together to combat the anxiety and uncertainty which surrounds it.
Ann, from Coity, Bridgend, said: “One of the things that is really important is meeting other people with the same condition because they are the only people who understand.
“I don’t know what it’s like to have a life-threatening heart condition hanging over you every single day.
“I think isolation is a problem and a lot of people unfortunately Google these things and you can get horror stories from the internet. In some cases people also get a diagnosis and they are given a shed load of tablets and told you will be seen again in six months.”
Ann’s husband Raymond, who played rugby and squash, had no idea he had the condition and had suffered no symptoms before he collapsed and died at work in Sony Pencoed in 1997. Even Ann, a cardiac nurse, did not spot anything unusual about her husband before his death aged 30.
Constant screening since then saw Elis, 23, formally diagnosed with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy around a year ago. Caused by a faulty gene it causes the muscle wall of the heart to thicken. The thicker it is the harder it is for the heart to pump blood.
It could strike at any time, sending Elis’ heart into an abnormal rhythm.
As a result doctors have recommended that he has a special defibrillator implanted in his heart over the next couple of years, which would automatically deliver a lifesaving shock should the worst happen.
Ann added: “Due to research people with cardiomyopathy are now living longer lives. It’s not the death sentence it once was.”
The first meeting of the group, which is being set up with the help of Cardiomyopathy UK, will take place on Saturday, March 10, at Pencoed Miners’ Welfare Hall, Heol y Groes, Pencoed between 2pm and 4pm.