I thought my heart attack was just bad indigestion after speaking to 111

It was 2012 and I was none the wiser that the attack of chest pain – which 111 told me could be indigestion – six months previously had in fact been something far more sinister.

I had been advised to sit still, drink a mug of hot water and suck on a peppermint and as I relaxed, so did the pain.

When I first started experiencing the feeling, it was a sensation like I’d never had before.

I had no idea what it was but was worried, so I called 111, who told me it could be wind. 

I normally have a very high tolerance, but this was agony – I had none of the other ‘classic’ heart attack symptoms either.

When it happened again just a few weeks later, I did exactly the same and, despite the pain, I followed the advice I’d been given before. 

We’d just moved house and I was single-handedly putting a new roof on our new home at 70 years old; I certainly didn’t feel like someone who was potentially having repeated heart attacks.

I had been due for a check up at the doctors, but when the pain started again on my way to the GP surgery, I told the receptionist on arrival. She got a doctor instantly and he sent me for an immediate scan. 

It was after this that I was told that these supposed episodes of indigestion and wind were in fact heart attacks.

I was so confused – I’d had ECGs in the past at check-ups and everything had been fine. I’d been generally healthy all my life and barely had had a need for a doctor.

I saw a specialist and had an angiogram to look at what state my heart was in – it felt completely surreal.

There was even more bad news – not only had I unwittingly been experiencing heart attacks over six months, I needed a triple heart bypass. My veins were all clogged up and something needed to be done.

I felt bloody awful. There was a three month wait for the triple bypass and in those months my active life grinded to a halt.

Up until that point I’d been doing woodturning since I was just 11 years old and had been spending most of my life in my ‘man cave’ workshop at the bottom of the garden creating.

I sold everything in my workshop. It was absolutely heartbreaking.

However, the triple bypass went better than I could have expected, as painful as it was. I told my wife that if I knew how much it was going to hurt, I would have refused to have it done, but in reality, it absolutely changed my life.

I was allowed to return to woodturning – I started out with a small machine (my wife didn’t like the idea of me going straight for the big items) and I begrudgingly started doing pens and other small items – a far cry from the huge three or foot wide bowls I was making for restaurants, but I was back.

Now, 10 years on since my operation, it’s something I still love doing at almost 80 years old and I’m celebrating my extra decade of life by trying to say thank you to those who saved me.

I’m raising £10k for the British Heart Foundation in honour of the help I received and hopefully the sales of my woodturning will help others receive the same treatment. 

I have a completely new lease of life and will keep on making the most of it. 

The work the BHF does is fantastic – I thought my life was over 10 years ago and here I am still living my passions. Retirement is on the cards every week – but I’ll keep going for as long as I can. The enjoyment keeps me going – I’m helping others. 

I’ve always been deeply factual: if my time’s up, it’s up. But if there’s one thing I’ve learnt it’s that life is to be enjoyed, not endured.

And I’ve had a whole extra 10 years to enjoy it thanks to my heart surgery – what a miracle that is.