NHS stories: The racing car driver

Jonny races Formula BMW

As part of a series of articles BBC News Online reporter Jane Elliott looks behind the scenes of the NHS.

This week we focus on how one teenager overcame a heart condition to take up the risky sport of motor racing.

Teenager Jonny Weeden stands out from the crowd.

When he was younger it was the scar the length of his chest that made Jonny feel and look different - now it is his sporting prowess.

For at the age of just 19 Jonny is making a name for himself in the sport of Formula BMW motor racing.

Jonny was born with congenital heart disease (CHD) and needed two major operations - he still needs regular check-ups at London's Royal Brompton Hospital.

Operations

Jonny remembers little about his time in hospital. His first operation was carried out when he was aged just eight weeks and the second when he was five-years-old.

"For the first five years I was in hospital the majority of the time and I don't remember most of that.

There was no way I was going to let my condition hold me back Jonny Weeden

"I had major surgery when I was five, but I did not want to be in hospital.

"I kept asking my parents when I could go home and they said I could go home when I could run to the end of the hall and back.

"So two days after my major heart surgery I got up and ran to the end of the hall and back and, as you can imagine, they were not very happy about that.

"I used to get flashbacks and can remember lying down on my back with tubes coming out of me."

Check-up

But Jonny was determined to put his poor health behind him and to forget the hospital, apart from an annual check-up.

His father was an avid bike racer and Jonny was very keen to follow in his footsteps.

"There was no way I was going to let my condition hold me back.

"There was no question.

"I was as fit as the next guy."

Jonny started karting at the age of just nine with the full backing of his parents.

He admitted that at first his scar set him apart, but soon he threw himself fully into the sport, becoming much less self-conscious.

"The first few years when I was racing I used to be a bit self-conscious because I was different.

Formula BMW racing

"And when the other kids were running around in just their shorts in the hot summers, I used to keep my t-shirt on.

"But then when I started winning I stopped caring, but people always asked me what the scar was."

Jonny was a very successful racer, winning the British and Welsh Championships juniors.

By 15 he was racing his first car at Mallory Park, in Leicestershire.

And he was hooked and racing all over Europe.

Inspiration

He said his parents have always backed his decision to take up the racy sport, which he said had been an incredible booster to his confidence.

"I came from a motor-racing background so that was something for me to do.

"It made me come out of my shell. At school I was really quiet, but on the karting track I was as loud as the next person.

"My parents have been a big help to me - an inspiration. Without my parents, none of what I have done would have been possible.

"They have been 100% behind me. They will tell me when I am wrong and they will give me their opinions, but they are always behind me."

But consultant cardiologist Dr Michael Mullen, of the Royal Brompton, explained that not all patients are as lucky as Jonny.

He said that for many of his heart patients their condition holds them back, despite their obvious health.

Dr Mullen said many insurers were reluctant to consider someone who had CHD.

But he said that insurers and employers should not label CHD patients because of an illness they had as a child, not if they were currently healthy.

"Most people, when they think of these blue-babies as adults, they think of them always having operations and attached to drips, but these are people who could be their colleagues, people who are working with them in the city.

"They have to face a whole lot of problems that their peers do not have to face and often have problems getting insurance," he said.

Colleague Dr Michael Gatzoulis agreed: "They are young individuals who often find it difficult to get insurances or mortgages, but they just want to get on with their lives."