Back in 2018, David was diagnosed with mitral valve prolapse, severe regurgitation and endocarditis which resulted in him staying in hospital for almost 40 days.

Mitral valve prolapse occurs when one of the thin strings holding the heart valve snaps causing the valve to remain partially open.

For David this resulted in blood flowing back in to the left atrium as the valve wasn’t  properly closed which put  a severe strain on his heart.

“The doctors and nurses were absolutely amazing. They’re caring, understanding, hard-working and professional and are truly dedicated to their job."

Prior to this David recalled feeling unwell for a couple of weeks in December 2017, and was referred by his doctors for an echocardiogram scan which showed he urgently needed an operation.

However, complications arose when three weeks before his operation he developed endocarditis – an infection of the inner lining of the heart chambers and valves which he developed again post-surgery.

David described the care he received through this difficult time, he said: “The doctors and nurses were absolutely amazing. They’re caring, understanding, hard-working and professional and are truly dedicated to their job.

“What you have to remember is how amazing the NHS truly is. “Throughout the ordeal I put on a brave face and kept my worries to myself, but after the operation I struggled to come to terms with what had happened, I would start crying randomly for no reason, it seemed like I’d developed posttraumatic stress disorder.

“In the end I spoke to my GP and he put me in touch with a counsellor. I spoke to him about my feelings, all my thoughts were about if I hadn’t had survived, but I should have been thinking about the fact I had.

"Thank god for the NHS”.

“Over the next few weeks I came through it, watching programmes like Helicopter ER and Countryside 999 and it helped me tremendously. I understood my thoughts better and understood that clips where people had visible and known injuries were easy for me to cope with but incidents where somebody collapsed without reason were the ones I couldn’t deal with, now I’m just so grateful to be here.

“I genuinely cannot thank the doctors, nurses and staff at both the Royal Hallamshire and Northern General hospitals enough for the treatment I received. Thank god for the NHS”.

David will be taking on the Motoscape Rally with his stepson Ashley and the pair plan to travel in an Audi TT visiting up to eight different countries in five days raising money for Sheffield Hospitals Charity, a cause  close to their hearts.

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