‘Having a heart condition doesn’t mean you have to live a limited life’
up upper body strength too, without putting too much stress on my chest muscles.
“Even after I had completed rehab, when my college friends were going on nights out, I didn’t feel like I could because I was worried I’d get ill.
“It was quite isolating because no one really understood what I was going through.”
Just as Robyn was getting her confidence back, studying anatomy and playing for her university’s rugby team, her consultant revealed the distressing news that the pig valve already needed replacing. On average, animal valve transplants last around 10 years, but Robyn’s had lasted just five. So at 24 she underwent her second open heart surgery, which saw the pig heart valve replaced with one from a cow.
“It was a huge blow,” she says. “I had joined a lot of sports teams at university but couldn’t play contact sports like rugby any more.”
Despite the setback,
Robyn, who lives with her partner Simon, 35, in Middlesbrough, was determined not to completely abandon the sporty life she loved.
“When I was 27 I took part in a
5km Race for Life because my niece was poorly,” she says. “I wasn’t really a runner, although I’d done spinning at the gym, so I decided to start doing park runs to train. Since then I’ve stuck with it and built upon that 5km distance.”
Robyn took part in the Great North Run before the pandemic to raise money for the British Heart Foundation.
In April, she celebrated her 30th birthday by running 30km and has now set her sights on a marathon. “I’ve spoken to my consultant and they said: ‘You’ve done a half marathon so you’re fine to do a full one. The important thing is to know your body and what you’re capable of. I won’t push to win it. I’ll just do it at my own pace.
“People assume having a heart condition is a really limiting illness but I’m living proof that you can still have an active life – as long as you listen to the experts and your body.”
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You can still have an active life if you listen to experts and to your body
■■This month you can sign up for Mymarathon, pledging to run 26.2 miles throughout June to help to raise life-saving funds for the British Heart Foundation’s research into heart and circulatory diseases. Find out more at bhf.org.uk/mymarathon.