Ben's Story

My name is Ben, I’m from Swindon and I’m a personal trainer. It’ll be two years in August 2025 since my surgery. I’d always been a big guy and a fitness enthusiast, lifting heavy and doing endurance work, so I thought I was in great shape. Then I started getting this strange, drowning, sinking sensation in my chest. Because it wasn’t really chest pain, I convinced myself it was muscle damage from lifting. I took a few days off and the pain went away, but the sinking feeling kept coming back, especially at night. I kept training, getting more out of breath, still making excuses and ignoring it for six weeks.

At my doctor’s office, I used the blood pressure machine but didn’t know how to read it. The receptionist asked what was wrong, and when I told her about the chest sensation, she said, “if it’s to do with your chest, go to urgent care.” That advice probably saved my life. At urgent care, they said my blood pressure was really high, did an ECG, and mentioned a murmur. When they asked me to call a relative because I might need to stay overnight, I knew it was serious. A doctor later told me they thought my left aortic valve had ruptured, causing aortic valve regurgitation, and that I might need urgent surgery. My kidneys had already started to fail because blood wasn’t reaching them properly. On Monday, they blue-lighted me to Brompton hospital in West London.

I’d always thought heart issues happened to people who didn’t take care of themselves, but you can look perfectly fit and still have something serious going on. Ignoring it for six weeks could’ve led to heart failure. My biggest question to the surgeon was whether I could make a full recovery. He said it would be a struggle but possible, and that became my mission.

After surgery, I felt frail and fragile. When I got home, I struggled just to walk to the end of the road. For six weeks, walking became my obsession, I went a little farther each day. I held back from lifting heavy until a surgeon told me, “Listen to your body. It’ll tell you if something’s wrong.” After that, I pushed on, determined to get back to where I was before and even stronger.

I like to think I’m stronger inside and out now. I documented everything from the day I went to hospital, and people from around the world have reached out after going through similar journeys. I am more present and more determined to make the most of every day. Surviving this has given me a renewed passion for living, and a reminder that even when life knocks you down, you can rebuild yourself stronger than before.