DAYS 1-3 - 90 Mile Beach
Days 1-3 of my trek across the entire length of New Zealand
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624 Reasons Why
My Story
My name is Joe and I suppose you could say I’m your fairly average 23 year old. I graduated from university with a law degree in 2022, have played sport pretty much my whole life and I love travel, playing guitar and art. I also had a sudden cardiac arrest at the age of 22.
Not videos of the day*
September 17th 2023 started off as a normal day like any other; little did I know this was to be the first day of my new life... literally. I was due to be taking part in a local lacrosse tournament so after breakfast I gathered my equipment, set off to the club, kitted up and took to the pitch just like I have hundreds of times before. Just a few minutes in, a ball struck me in the back of the neck and I collapsed... or so I was told. I actually don't remember that day nor much of the few days following.
My earliest memory is of my older brother sat next to me, telling me that I had suffered a cardiac arrest on the pitch. Words can't describe the feelings that overcome you when you hear that. I didn't think this was something that could happen to me.
According to the British Heart Foundation, less than 1-in-10 people survive an out of hospital cardiac arrest. I collapsed in the middle of a field and my heart stopped for 4 minutes. The truth is, I survived through both incredible luck and the quick thinking of those around me that I will forever be thankful for. The referee of my match was a firefighter, there were numerous trained medical professionals spectating, there was a cardiac defibrillator on site, and the ambulance was able to arrive within 3 minutes of being called. Even the air ambulance arrived to help. I'm fit and active having played sport my whole life and had never experienced any symptoms or issues hinting that I had an underlying heart condition. There is absolutely no history in my family of similar events occurring.
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Within a few hours of arriving at the hospital I was diagnosed with Brugada Syndrome, a rare condition that affects the electrical messages which control my heart rate. After two frustrating weeks sat on a heart ward attached to a monitor 24/7, I was eventually fitted with an internal cardiac defibrillator on October 3rd and discharged.
Admittedly, this was a bit of an inconvenience, but I started to realise how truly lucky I had been. As far as I was aware I remember none of the day and woke up in hospital in no pain whatsoever and was out of hospital in 2 weeks with just a little metal box in my chest to show for the ordeal. Within 3 months I was working again and back on the pitch playing lacrosse with little-to-no life adjustments: essentially life completely back to normal. The fact that the biggest inconvenience of me suffering a sudden cardiac arrest was that I was banned from driving for 6 months and now set off metal detectors in airports says a lot. I'm also now banned from arc welding and can never be a fighter pilot. Damn.
It was far more difficult for my family. My parents were on just their second day of a holiday in Cyprus when they received a call that their son had collapsed and was being defibrillated on the pitch. My brother, who lives in London, received a similar call around the same time. My parents immediately booked flights home and spent the next few hours not knowing whether I would still be alive when they got back. My brother got the first train up to Manchester, recounting it as the worst 2 hours of his life as he spent it thinking he would arrive to find he no longer had a little brother. I can't imagine how hard it must have been for them.
The ripple effect through the lacrosse community was also very obvious, and not only because the tournament was abandoned (sorry about that). Every lacrosse player in England seemed to have heard about what had happened and I was hugely surprised and thankful of the amount of support I received from people I had never even met or barely knew. This made me realise just how many people can be impacted and affected by an event like this.
Seeing the toll this had on my family and the community coupled with the fact that I survived left me with one question: why me? Why was I one of the lucky ones to survive when 12 people under the age of 35 every week are not as lucky? Over 624 people per year. 624 young lives ended long before their time. 624 parents, children, siblings, partners, friends lost. Out of nowhere. No warning, no time to prepare for a sudden devastating loss.
This is why I have been inspired to raise money and awareness for Cardiac Risk in the Young. This charity, amongst other things, provides heart screening for young people which has the potential to reveal underlying unidentified heart conditions and prevent sudden cardiac death. If me walking over 3,000km can raise enough money to support their work and save even one life, it would be worth doing 100 times over. Because nobody should have to rely on luck.
You can help me make a difference.
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