NI woman living with heart disease runs 10 triathlons in one summer
Frances Kane was diagnosed with heart disease when she was just 27.
Last updated 29th Sep 2017
The 32-year-old is now speaking out after the British Heart Foundation revealed around 100,000 women here are living with heart and circulatory disease.
The north Belfast woman said she never suspected her symptoms would be anything serious:
"I started to get chest pains any time I exerted myself," she said.
"Things like walking up a steep hill, carrying something up the stairs or running to catch a bus but I didn't imagine it could be anything serious.
"I also started to get pains in my left arm but again I just ignored it as something muscular.
"You hear these as symptoms as being indicative of cardiac issues but it wasn't something I ever expected would happen to me when I was only 27.
"I have always been an active person.
"I ran the Belfast marathon in 2007, I exercised regularly, ate well, had a healthy weight and never smoked so I always considered myself fit and healthy."
Frances, who was studying for her PHD was told she had asthma and allergies before eventually being referred to the cardiac outpatient's clinic.
"My dad had a heart attack when he was in his early forties, the doctor said it was unlikely that I had heart disease but given the family history, she would send me for a treadmill test.
"We never actually thought I would have trouble with my heart, it was more a case of ruling it out until we moved onto the next thing.
"After a treadmill ECG I then had an angiogram that showed I had 70 percent stenosis in one of my main arteries and they had to put a stent in.
"I was incredibly shocked and upset that something like this could happen to me when I felt I had done everything according to what the experts say regarding maintaining a healthy body.
"Afterwards I struggled to understand why this happened to me, I did everything right.
"The specialist told me I had been on my way to a massive heart attack.
"That was very hard to hear when I was so young," she said.
Frances attended cardiac rehabilitation classes for six weeks and is now back to good health and takes daily medication.
Over the summer she completed no fewer than 10 triathlons.
"Today I still take my medication but I am now even more active than I was before.
"One thing that was a great help to me was getting involved in my local Parkrun when I finished my rehab.
"I started running again regularly every week and it has really encouraged me to keep active.
"I then had the confidence to take my fitness goals further and earlier this year completed my first triathlon, something that I only joked about being able to do previously.
"I feel lucky that I had the warning signs that not everybody has the chance to follow up on.
"I would urge anybody with any of the symptoms to get checked out and always seek a second opinion when you think you need to, nobody knows your own body better than you," she said.
Karen McCammon, from the British Heart Foundation NI said:
“These figures reveal the high and growing burden of heart and circulatory disease in Northern Ireland.
“They specifically highlight that women are not immune to heart diseases and there is a need for more awareness so they receive better and prompt care. Frances’ story shows heart disease isn’t just a man’s disease but can even happen to fit and active young women.
“We urgently need to fund more research to better understand the impact of heart disease and help develop new and better ways to prevent, diagnose and treat it.”
BHF NI currently invests around £2.5million in Northern Ireland in cardiovascular research.
Find out more about women and heart disease and the BHF’s life saving research at bhf.org.uk/women