By the time you read this, The Beacon Peloton will have reached its half way point of Ely. The weather could have been a little warmer, but Beacon parents and staff are a hardy bunch and who minds a bit of cold when you have the cheers and high fives of the Beacon community from what was a suitably raucous send off at breaktime this morning. We will have to remember that noise and energy when we set off from what will be a quieter, Premier Inn car park, tomorrow, heading for Cromer Lighthouse to complete the third of our epic rides. These events represent the very best of Beacon fellowship as well as keeping me focused and determined to keep in reasonable athletic shape as I meander through my fifties. My father-in-law will often remark “There is no more wealth than health” – an opportune and deeply personal phrase when I consider our charity partner ‘Myocarditis UK’, who we are cycling in aid of this weekend.
In this column at the end of last September, I wrote about our impending family trip to Wembley to watch Oasis the next day. That was a great night, but our older son Patrick, who had travelled down from University in Birmingham that Saturday, was a little under the weather and not completely himself. In any case, we had lunch on Sunday and walked him down to Berkhamsted Station to get the train back to the midlands. The next morning, Brigid and I woke and upon checking our phones, discovered that Patrick had reported feeling faint, had collapsed and his housemate had managed to get him in a taxi to A and E where he was immediately transferred to the cardiology ward. I came into school, took Staff Meeting and Assembly, rearranged my schedule and drove up to Birmingham that morning, concerned but not thinking this would be anything too serious. On arrival, Patrick was sitting up in a chair and wired up to monitors; he was calm and chatting but even with my limited medical knowledge I could tell that his heart rate was not right. As the hours progressed, different medical professions arrived and scaled in their seniority. By teatime, he was ultimately rushed to surgery to be put on an ECMO machine, moved to the ICU and the counsel of the medical professionals was that if this was not successful, there were several other options they would try before we would be contemplating a full heart transplant. What Patrick had was acute myocarditis; a flu virus had attacked his heart with such ferocity that he effectively had heart failure. After two weeks, he came off the ECMO machine and after a period of recuperation on the cardiology ward, we got him home. What saved him was partly his young age but principally the quick, proactive and expert action of the staff from the Queen Elizabeth II Hospital in Birmingham, and the ECMO machine.
Myocarditis UK is the only charity dedicated to funding research and treatment for this disease and is based in Beaconsfield. It was set up in the memory of Alexander Jansons, an 18 year old who contracted myocarditis but unfortunately did not make the same recovery as Patrick and passed away at the age of 18. Not all hospitals have ECMO machines or the expertise in cardio matters that Patrick benefitted from. By raising funds for this charity, we can help to provide resources to hospitals across the UK so that there are more success stories like Patrick’s. Please give generously HERE – there truly is ‘no more wealth than health’.
Nick Baker