Heart-to-heart with 'Hopalong Lazarus'

Brian Fear finds laughter the best medicine

By Natalie Grice BBC News Online

When Football Association of Wales former president Brian Fear suffered a heart attack at the start of the year, reports of his death circulated slightly too prematurely.

His "death" hit the headlines after footballers in a south Wales valley's local football league held minutes' silences for him.

Now the lifelong Aberaman football club supporter is using his experience of heart attacks to promote World Heart Day on Sunday, 29 September.

After I broke my leg, they called me Hopalong Lazarus

Brian Fear

The World Heart Federation is co-ordinating events all around the globe to highlight the importance of looking after hearts to avoid becoming another thrombosis statistic.

Pains

Like many heart attack victims, Mr Fear did not initially realise what was happening to him.

It was after doing his usual voluntary work - looking after the garden at St Margaret's Church in his home town of Aberaman - that the attack struck.

Speaking from Llandough Hospital's coronary outpatients department, he explained: "A friend living opposite asked me in for a cup of tea and while I was there, I felt pains go across my chest.

Brian Fear is promoting healthy hearts

"I've previously had angina attacks so I said I'd go outside for a few moments and they'd pass away.

"But they didn't go so I rang a friend, who's a nurse and by the time she got there, I was vomiting and had pretty bad chest pain."

After an ambulance arrived, Mr Fear was rushed to Prince Charles Hospital in Merthyr Tydfil, where they discovered a blood clot in an artery.

He was transferred to Morriston Hospital in Swansea, where unbeknown to him, he was given 48 hours to live.

"My son and daughter came down and I was talking through all this, and they told me 'if you're not quiet, they'll have to leave'," he said laughing.

"I didn't know how bad I was; I thought I was all right. I had to stay in coronary care for a week."

Death rumours

He also found plenty to laugh about after rumours got about that he had died, and many of the clubs in the Aberdare local league held a minute's silence at the start of games.

"There were sympathy cards and messages of condolence going to the house. They even made a collection - I didn't get it mind," he said.

Six weeks after the heart attack, he had more health troubles when he slipped on a pavement and broke his leg.

The BHF is supporting World Heart Day

This time he had to spend a month in hospital, as being a high-risk patient, the operation to repair his leg had to be delayed three times.

He said: "When I'd had the heart attack and they thought I'd died, they called me Lazarus. After I broke my leg, I came back and they called me Hopalong Lazarus."

Once he was able to get about again he was back doing charity work - including a 24-mile fundraising walk.

He is the living example of the message he wants to pass on to other heart attack victims - stay positive, and carry on life as best you can.

"I'm not one for sitting in a corner reading a book, so I go out and about as I've done all my life.

"People ask if I think about having another heart attack, but I don't - anything could happen; you could be knocked down by a bus."

Textbook

Brian Fear could be considered extremely unlucky suffering a heart attack after leading a healthy life.

Llandough cardiac clinic patient Glenn Mayford, on the other hand, was an almost textbook example.

Mr Mayford attributed the chest pains he felt whenever he exerted himself to his 30-cigarettes-a-day habit.

At the age of 39, he had a heart attack but did not realise what it was.

It was only weeks later that his doctor saw him and sent him for tests, revealing the heart attack for what it was.

Smokers never think they can become ill through cigarettes - it happens to someone else, not yourself

Glenn Mayford

Told that he needed a triple-bypass, Mr Mayford had to wait for over a year to get it done.

His lifestyle has changed completely in the 10 years since the attack.

"I'm a lot more aware of what I'm eating and what I'm doing. I exercise regularly, walk and swim," he said.

"Everything's taken on a different priority - things that were important before, work, etc, just go over my head."

Most importantly, he gave up smoking immediately after the attack.

"I think the overriding thing is that people don't think it can happen to them," he said.

"Smokers never think they can become ill through cigarettes - it happens to someone else, not yourself."