Kreena’s breast cancer treatment gave her heart failure and doctors said she might not survive the next two years. Six years later, she’s now featured in Heart Research UK’s women’s awareness campaign.

In 2016, Kreena Dhiman, then 37, had just crossed the finish line of her breast cancer treatment and was ready to celebrate life with her husband. She was only 33 when she had undergone three years of extensive treatment, and finally Kreena and her husband were able to go on a long-awaited holiday to Vancouver.

In Vancouver, Kreena started becoming unwell. Despite taking it slow, after two days she became lethargic and was felt like she’d be sick every time she coughed. The following night was the worst night of Kreena’s life.

“I couldn’t breathe. No matter how hard I was breathing, I couldn’t get air into my lungs. It felt like I was drowning,” Kreena recalls.

After hours at the hospital, 12 different medical teams still hadn’t been able to figure out why she had difficulty breathing.

By this point, she was so breathless she was unable to talk. Despite her husband trying to explain to the doctors her medical history and the drugs she had been on, no one could figure out what was wrong with her. Finally, the doctors sat down with Kreena’s husband and said it was not looking good, they were afraid she wouldn’t make it through the night.

“It was so hard to hear. Suddenly, we were reaching this point where people are giving up hope and they don’t even know why.”

Eventually, Kreena was seen by the cardiology team. “A cardiologist held my hand and said I’ve been through your file, and I see you’ve had chemotherapy three years ago. I don’t need you to say anything, but I need you to squeeze my hand if you remember your chemotherapy being red in colour.”

Kreena was instantly taken back to the point when she was receiving this drug, which was delivered manually from a massive red syringe through her cannula instead of through the normal pump attached to a drip stand. The nurse explained this drug was very toxic, and they had to make sure it didn’t leak into any other parts of her body. It was therefore monitored manually.

Kreena squeezed the cardiologist’s hand and then immediately an emergency button was hit, and the sound of sirens filled the room. She was going into acute heart failure, a condition where the heart fails to pump enough blood around the body. It’s a long-term condition that gradually gets worse over time and is a consequence of other conditions that affect the heart’s ability to pump well, such as coronary heart disease or heart attack.

The cardio oncologist told Kreena the cancer treatment drug she’d been given three years ago is known to be cardiotoxic and, although rare, can cause heart failure.

Heart failure often causes fluid to build up in the body and Kreena had fluid in her lungs and her heart, which is why she was struggling to breathe. Her low blood pressure and her body being overloaded with fluid made her chance of survival low. But slowly, Kreena began feeling better, and two months later the couple was told they could fly home.

“I think something really kickstarted in me at that point [when we arrived back in the UK]. I felt like I’m going to do this,” she says.

“My heart failure is the part of my life that will need constant support, care and education with medicines that might need to be evolved. There’s so much that will need to continue to be researched when it comes to heart disease.”

Kreena’s story is just one of many cases of heart disease in women across the UK, with research highlighting how women are unaware of the symptoms of heart disease. Although coronary heart disease (CHD) kills twice as many women as breast cancer every year, many people still associate heart disease with just men.