Anger, tears and joy after Shropshire woman’s heart attack at 22

On 6 January 2024, a then 22-year old Faith Harrison began to have a heart attack while driving home from a hockey match.

It lasted for seven hours and resulted in emergency surgery and a diagnosis of heart failure.

Twelve months later, now 23, life has completely changed for the fitness coach from Shropshire.

“Not just me, my doctors, would describe me as very healthy, very fit but also a bit of a surprise that I’m doing really, really well,” she said.

“Looking back, I was quite naïve about how sick I actually was.”

As well as drastically changing her lifestyle, Ms Harrison still deals with the trauma of her heart attack.

She described feeling grief for the life she used to live.

“Sometimes I’m so angry I want to shout at the world and say: ‘Why me?’

“Sometimes I’m extremely upset because I question what my life would look like if this didn’t happen.”

After the heart attack, Ms Harrison found out she had two underlying congenital conditions.

A patent foramen ovale – or PFO – which is a small hole between the top two chambers of the heart.

She also has May-Thurner Syndrome, a rarely diagnosed condition that tends to affect women more than men, in which an artery compresses a vein in the pelvis and this makes it harder for blood to flow back to the heart.

Following her diagnosis of heart failure, she was told the amount of blood leaving her heart every time it squeezes – its ejection fraction – was at about 27%, with anything over 50% considered normal.

“Eight out of 17 segments of my heart don’t function,” added Ms Harrison.

Today, her heart’s ejection fraction is at 47%.

Reflecting on the last 12 months, she said: “I’ve done 10 times more than I could’ve ever imagined.”

She is now an ambassador for the British Heart Foundation and has raised awareness of women suffering with heart issues.

“I got engaged, qualified as a Pilates teacher, started teaching at a studio, started a podcast… I’ve got loads of things coming for 2025,” she told the BBC.

However, she added this had not come without sacrifice.

“I had to change my life completely… I went from weight training and playing hockey to mat Pilates and reformer Pilates, so it was lower impact.”

She also changed her diet and now takes dozens of medications every day including blood thinners.

“I don’t take anything, even the smallest little things, for granted,” she said firmly.

“Being able to walk up the stairs, being able to clean my house, being able to work out, personal train in a gym.

“For me, that’s extraordinary because there’s so many people out there that have what I have or have been through what I have been through, and they can’t do those things.”

Ms Harrison said she suffers from flashbacks.

“I have days where I don’t want to leave the house, and I have days where my quads tense up, my heart rate increases, I sweat, and I can just visualise that day all over again,” she added.

As the year anniversary of her heart attack approaches, Ms Harrison is not shying away from the milestone.

“I’m having a cake made,” she said.

“A big heart cake, with lots of hearts on it.

“I want to celebrate being given a second life, it’s not a day I want to ignore.”