MEG DEFIED DOCS FOR HEART’S DESIRE

TOLD at the age of 15 that she should stop playing football, Stoke City women’s captain Meg Bowyer refused to give it up even after THREE heart operations.

Now aged 28, and still defying the odds, Bowyer recalled: “I had been playing football since around the age of six without any problems until I was at Stoke City in the Under-14s.

“We were playing a game on a Saturday morning and suddenly I had this strange feeling in my chest.

“I thought what the hell is it? I tried to play through it but couldn’t. I had to come off. I told my dad my heart was hurting. He took me to the doctors and when they finally discovered what was wrong with me I was advised to stop playing football.”

Bowyer (right) was found to be suffering from Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, a severe irregular heart-beat which can send it into a dangerous frenzy – though the path to a correct diagnosis was not an easy or short one.

She said: “At first they told me I had heartburn and to take Gaviscon before a game. Then they told me I had asthma which is true to an extent. But my heart was still hurting. I was prescribed beta blockers, to try and slow my heart-rate down. It didn’t sort it so I had my first operation at 16.

“That didn’t really work, and at 17 I had another operation, the effects of which lasted five or six years, enabling me to continue playing football.”

It still meant Bowyer having to manage the odd flare-up during games, leaving other players looking on in trepidation.

She said: “I would lie down on the floor after telling a team-mate my heart was hurting. The ref would stop the game. And anyone who didn’t know me would be in a state of panic.

“My heart would be beating so fast you could see the top of my football shirt moving. I could hardly breathe as well until my heart went back into its normal rhythm. I would then get up and play on.”

Bowyer, currently kicking her heels as the Women’s National League North is on hold, added: “I had my last operation five years ago. Thankfully there hasn’t been a repeat so far – but there’s no way I would ever think about stopping playing.”