A Lincolnshire trio are raising money for lifesaving defibs in their local community
Having known family and friends who have been through life changing heart issues and living through the impact that's had on families, John Spriggens, Rico Franco and Rachel Overton are hoping to make a difference.
A Lincolnshire man who was the first person in the UK to have a pioneering type of heart surgery is joining forces to raise money to buy new defibrillators for their community.
John Spriggens, 50, from Gainsborough, is teaming up with local boxer and gym owner Rico Franco, 30, as they attempt to make at least £2,000 for the life-saving equipment. The pair will be joined by John’s step daughter Rachel Overton, 42.
The trio have named their campaign Keep Hearts Beating and are organising a series of events throughout the next few months to make enough for two defibs, with any leftover money going to the British Heart Foundation.
The challenge is even more poignant after John’s wife, and Rachel’s mother, Janice, died of a cardiac arrest while working at a local care home late last year. There was a defibrillator in the home but sadly she couldn’t be saved.
Now John, Rico and Rachel want to make sure there are more defibrillators in their local community and plan to install one in South Moor Lodge Care home in Walkeringham where Rachel works, and one at Rico’s gym – Franco’s Boxing Club, in Gainsborough.
Speaking about why he was inspired to raise the money for defibrillators, John said he first started having heart problems when he was just 31 and blacked out one day while playing football.
He was taken to hospital but at the time they couldn’t find anything wrong with him and it was only when it happened again nine years later that they realised it was heart-related.
“I was playing football again - I wanted to play when I was 40 and this was literally my last ever game when it happened,“ he said.
“This time when they took me to hospital they fitted me with a pacemaker as now they realised it was probably to do with my heart”.
But it wasn’t until the following year that John was formerly diagnosed with a heart condition called ventricular tachycardia – which can lead to an abnormally fast heart rhythm and if not treated could also be life-threatening. He had his pacemaker taken out and replaced with an ICD – a small implantable cardioverter defibrillator.
Unfortunately over the next seven years, John said he had a high number of episodes where his ICD “fired” - which means creating a shock to bring his heart rate and rhythm back to normal – something he called a “very unpleasant experience”.
John had three ablation operations to try and cure his ventricular tachycardia but none of them worked – until his surgeon asked if he would like to take part in pioneering surgery which meant having the procedure done as open-heart surgery, giving better access to the relevant parts of John’s heart.
To date, he believes he is still the only person in the UK to have had ablation surgery this way.
"That was about three years ago and I haven’t had an episode since,” he said.
“It’s changed my life in terms of my anxiety, the confidence that I have, I can now do what I want to do – it's made a huge difference.
“My big thing in life has always been sport but before this operation I had to stop even watching it as I was worried about my heart going into dangerous rhythm because of the adrenaline.
“Finally now I can start doing the things I love again: I am playing pool again, I am watching sport again – and I don’t have to think about my heart while I am doing so”.
After recovering from his surgery, John was at the point when he was thinking about starting to fundraise when he lost his wife Janice. He said she had a series of cardiac arrests and sadly died in hospital a week later.
Although there was a defibrillator at the care home where Janice was working when she collapsed, he found out there wasn’t one at the care home where his step-daughter Rachel was working so they decided they would fundraise to buy one.
John was then contacted by Rico who wanted to fundraise to buy a defib for his gym – and Keep Hearts Beating was born.
John, Rico and Rachel’s fundraising efforts will include a 100k challenge which involves people covering 100k by running, walking, swimming or other methods over a five week period; a boxing event at Rico’s gym where anyone brave enough can take on the boxing champ; and a charity night finale in October.
The trio will be supported in the 100k challenge by a team from John’s workplace, Barry Fenton Insurance, and another team from South Moor Lodge care home.
British Heart Foundation’s Fundraising Manager for Lincolnshire, Melanie Meik, said she was sure John, Rico and Rachel would meet and go beyond their fundraising target:
“All three are motivated to raise money to help others in their community, and all three are incredibly inspirational themselves,” said Melanie.
“I am sure they will raise all the money they need for two defibs and more – and any money that comes to the British Heart Foundation will be used to help fund the sort of research that has been so vital to help John."
To find out more and donate, visit the Keep Hearts Beating Just Giving page.