Katie went back to her GP every month for 15 months. Danny had 16 appointments in a year and nobody checked his blood pressure once. So why does heart failure take so long to spot?

In this first episode of a four-part series, Nick Hartshorne-Evans - founder and CEO of the Pumping Marvellous Foundation - sits down with Katie, Danny and Donna to talk about the part nobody prepares you for, getting the diagnosis. Between them they were told it was a chest infection, asthma, their pacemaker, their weight, their age and their mental health. Danny went private in the end and was told his cough was psychological. Donna was carrying so much fluid that her trousers burst while she was stocking a bottom shelf at work. Katie was blue-lighted to hospital and spent six weeks unconscious, so her parents were given the diagnosis instead of her.

They talk about how long it takes to be believed, whether a diagnosis at 26 gets taken as seriously as one at 70, and what they wish someone had said to them in that room. Danny wrote out his funeral arrangements at three in the morning. Three years on, he says his life has never been better.

No white coats. No jargon. Just people who've lived it.

In this episode:

00:00: Welcome and what this episode covers

01:43: Meet Katie, Danny and Donna

02:53: The symptoms you can't explain to yourself

09:48: A year, 16 appointments, no blood pressure check

12:14: Why we all explain the symptoms away

13:34: Is heart failure diagnosis ageist?

15:06: Why BEAT matters

16:03: The moment each of them was told

25:07: Catastrophe or relief?

28:38: Grieving the life you thought you'd have

32:14: What we wish we'd known on day one

38:05: Where to find support

🫀 If heart failure is part of your life, you don't have to face it alone.

The Pumping Marvellous Foundation is the UK's leading heart failure charity, patient-led, trusted, and here for you.

⚡ B.E.A.T. Breathlessness, Exhaustion, Ankle swelling, Time to tell your GP or nurse. If you have a combination of these, speak to your GP surgery. Heart failure is diagnosed with a simple blood test.

🔗 Visit: www.pumpingmarvellous.org

💬 Peer support, search "Help for Hearts" on Facebook and apply to join

💛 Donate £5 today and help someone feel less alone

#HeartFailure #HeartFailureDiagnosis #BEATHF #PumpingMarvellous #HeartFailureUnfiltered #HeartFailureAwareness #KnowTheSymptoms #Breathlessness #Misdiagnosis #HeartHealth #PatientAdvocacy #CardiacCare #NHS #HealthAwareness #ChronicIllness #HeartDisease #UKCharity #PublicHealth #EjectionFraction #CardiologyCare

Getting the diagnosis is only the beginning. So what happens to a family once the crisis passes and heart failure just... stays?

In this second episode of a two-part series, Nick Hartshorn-Evans - founder and CEO of the Pumping Marvellous Foundation - sits back down with his wife Karen and daughters Natasha and Anastasia to talk about what came after his heart failure diagnosis at 39. Coming home didn't mean going back to normal. Instead, it meant a new German Shepherd puppy, a secretly renovated bedroom, missing prescriptions, a heart failure nurse who became a lifeline, and two young girls quietly growing up faster than they should have.

Together they talk honestly about isolation, mental health, the confusing gap between specialist and GP care, why percentages like "ejection fraction" mean nothing without context, and what they'd say to a family just starting this journey. It's a warm, funny, and deeply honest look at the long tail of a heart failure diagnosis — for the patient and everyone around them.

This is part two of a two-part series.

In this episode:

00:00 — Welcome & what this episode covers

02:39 — Coming home to fish and chips (and being sick)

03:57 — The secret bedroom makeover

05:28 — The chandelier assembly saga

06:55 — What the girls actually remember coming home

07:15 — Were you being a giddy five-year-old?

08:54 — Living "institutionalised" after weeks in hospital

09:15 — Nearly giving Riggs the puppy away

09:48 — Giving a hospitalised parent's gift some thought

11:27 — Watching for symptoms with no clear playbook

12:26 — The warfarin prescription fight

13:53 — Losing hospital "cotton wool" back in primary care

14:12 — Getting back to normal vs. pacing yourself

19:17 — What heart failure changed — or "chained" — in the family

19:27 — Marvellous myth buster: does a diagnosis mean nothing improves?

21:05 — Did isolation ever creep in?

22:51 — The fall, the head bang, and the long A&E wait

24:03 — Did it make the girls grow up faster?

25:29 — "Nobody's ever talked about the charity" — until now

26:18 — What have you learned about your parents?

28:09 — What clinicians should — and shouldn't — tell young children

31:19 — Why ejection fraction percentages confuse patients

33:05 — What would you say to another child going through this?

35:20 — What Nick would tell himself in that hospital bed

36:06 — Closing thoughts and how to find support

🫀 If heart failure is part of your life, you don't have to face it alone.

The Pumping Marvellous Foundation is the UK's leading heart failure charity — patient-led, trusted, and here for you.

🔗 Visit: www.pumpingmarvellous.org

💛 Donate £5 today and help someone feel less alone

#HeartFailure #HeartFailureAwareness #PumpingMarvellous #HeartFailureUnfiltered #FamilyStory #HeartFailureRecovery #HeartHealth #PatientAdvocacy #CardiacCare #NHS #HealthAwareness #ChronicIllness #CaregiverSupport #HeartDisease #UKCharity #PublicHealth #MentalHealthAndIllness #HospitalStory #EjectionFraction #CardiologyCare

A heart failure diagnosis doesn't just happen to one person - it happens to the whole family. So why does it so often take a crisis before anyone gets the diagnosis right?

In this first episode of a two-part series, Nick Hartshorn-Evans - founder and CEO of the Pumping Marvellous Foundation - turns the mic on his own family. At 39, Nick was rushed to hospital with organs shutting down before finally being told: "you've got heart failure." Fifteen years on, he sits down with his wife Karen and daughters Natasha and Anastasia to relive the missed symptoms, the frightening hospital stay, and what it was really like watching a husband and father become critically ill without warning.

Together they unpack the GP visits that missed the signs, the terrifying nights of hallucinations, how a new puppy became an unlikely lifeline, and the different ways children and adults process a frightening diagnosis. It's a raw, funny, and honest look at what happens when heart failure comes home - essential listening for patients, families, and anyone who has ever sat by a hospital bed not knowing what's next.

This is part one of a two-part series.

In this episode:

00:00 — Welcome & what this series is about

00:22 — The question this series keeps asking: beat the diagnosis

00:52 — Marvellous myth buster: can symptoms improving mean you're cured?

01:09 — Meet the family: wife Karen and daughters Natasha & Anastasia

02:07 — The day our family changed forever

02:15 — A frozen house, a new puppy and the first warning signs

03:41 — Struggling to breathe and missing the classic symptoms

04:51 — A&E dismisses it as "pregnant woman syndrome"

05:41 — The little green men: hallucinations begin

06:38 — "You're going to hospital" — the turning point

08:44 — Kidneys and liver failing, doctors baffled

11:33 — Diagnosed: "you've got heart failure"

15:09 — Telling two young daughters without scaring them

16:10 — A puppy, school runs and holding the family together

17:26 — Did the NHS miss the warning signs at home?

18:49 — Reading heart failure leaflets: "you're going to die"

19:29 — What the girls actually remember from hospital

20:51 — Would Google and AI have changed how scared they felt?

23:16 — Driving home after hearing the words "heart failure"

24:14 — The worst days: fluid overload and a wheelchair to the bathroom

24:44 — Was there even time to be afraid?

28:58 — Marvellous myth buster: why do we say "failure"?

31:08 — What "heart failure" meant to a five-year-old

32:08 — Sisters, secrets and sweets from WH Smith

36:26 — Nick turns the questions back on Karen

39:38 — Living with an ejection fraction of 15–20%

41:45 — Why Nick didn't want his daughters to see him that ill

44:07 — What Nick wishes he'd understood sooner

47:37 — Would they tell the girls differently if they were teens?

50:46 — Life on the cardiology ward: unforgettable characters

52:23 — Closing thoughts and where to find support

🫀 If heart failure is part of your life, you don't have to face it alone.

The Pumping Marvellous Foundation is the UK's leading heart failure charity — patient-led, trusted, and here for you.

🔗 Visit: www.pumpingmarvellous.org

💛 Donate £5 today and help someone feel less alone

#HeartFailure #HeartFailureAwareness #PumpingMarvellous #HeartFailureUnfiltered #FamilyStory #HeartFailureDiagnosis #HeartHealth #PatientAdvocacy #CardiacCare #NHS #HealthAwareness #ChronicIllness #CaregiverSupport #HeartDisease #UKCharity #PublicHealth #MentalHealthAndIllness #HospitalStory #HeartTransplant #CardiologyCare

Finding heart failure early doesn't just save lives - it saves the NHS money, time, and capacity. But why are we still so slow at catching it?In this second episode of a two-part series, Nick is joined by Gavin (patient educator and heart transplant recipient), Amy (Medtronic), and Gail (ICB CVD Prevention Commissioner) to look beyond the individual diagnosis story and ask the bigger system question: how do we find people earlier, at scale, and bring healthcare into the communities that need it most?Together they unpack the real cost of late diagnosis, the inequalities driving it, why the NHS still isn't built for prevention, and how community-based BEAT Heart Health Events - funded by Medtronic and delivered with the Pumping Marvellous Foundation - are screening thousands of people and catching hidden cases of hypertension and heart failure before they become emergencies.This is part two of a two-part series - essential listening for patients, carers, commissioners, and anyone working in cardiovascular health.In this episode:00:00 — Welcome & what this series is about00:22 — Finding people earlier at scale01:20 — Meet Gail, Amy & Gav02:00 — The biggest cardiovascular challenges facing the NHS04:19 — Why the system stays reactive, not preventative09:29 — Have we failed at CVD prevention?12:00 — Prevention vs. political headline cycles10:12 — How much heart disease is actually preventable15:37 — What "primordial prevention" really means12:52 — The NHS 10 Year Plan and the neighbourhood model13:32 — Bringing healthcare into the community17:57 — Why health isn't always a priority for people18:53 — Rethinking "hard to reach" communities19:08 — Marvellous myth buster: heart medication21:42 — Why trust is everything in community healthcare23:11 — Reaching diverse and underserved communities25:32 — Collaboration between charities, NHS & industry28:03 — What success looks like for Medtronic27:42 — Why schools could be part of the neighbourhood model29:32 — The fear factor: why people avoid hospitals33:15 — Speaking the public's language, not jargon36:20 — Measuring success beyond the numbers34:43 — Making screening the norm, not a one-off event39:11 — AI, data & the future of prevention43:47 — Where cardiovascular care needs to be in 5 years44:38 — Closing thoughts: earlier changes everything🫀 If heart failure is part of your life, you don't have to face it alone.The Pumping Marvellous Foundation is the UK's leading heart failure charity — patient-led, trusted, and here for you.🔗 Visit: www.pumpingmarvellous.org💛 Donate £5 today and help someone feel less alone#HeartFailure #HeartFailureAwareness #PumpingMarvellous #HeartFailureUnfiltered #BEATHeartHealth #CVDPrevention #EarlyDiagnosis #NHS10YearPlan #HealthInequalities #CommunityHealthcare #HeartHealth #PatientAdvocacy #NHSInnovation #HeartDisease #PopulationHealth #UKCharity #PublicHealth #Prevention #DigitalHealth #ChronicIllness

A missed cough. An inhaler that didn't work. A night spent drowning in his own home. Gav Redhead's heart failure diagnosis came far too late — and he's not alone.

In this first episode of a two-part series, Nick Hartson-Evans (founder and CEO of the Pumping Marvellous Foundation) sits down with Gav Redhead (patient educator and heart transplant recipient), Amy Newton (Medtronic), and Gail (ICB CVD Prevention Commissioner) to ask one question again and again: why does being first across the line to detect heart failure matter so much — to patients, to the NHS, and to everyone in between?

Gav walks us through his own terrifying route to diagnosis, from a useless inhaler to a hospital bed and eventually a heart transplant. From there, the panel unpacks why the system still isn't built for prevention, what "primordial prevention" actually means, and how community-based BEAT Heart Health Events — funded by Medtronic and delivered with the Pumping Marvellous Foundation — are catching hidden cases of hypertension and heart failure in as little as 60 minutes, for a fraction of the cost of a hospital pathway.

This is part one of a two-part series — don't miss part two, where the conversation goes beyond the individual story to the bigger system question.

In this episode:00:00 — Welcome to a two-part series on beating heart failure00:47 — Meet Gav, Amy & Gail01:54 — Gav's heart failure story begins04:18 — The night he couldn't breathe05:28 — "You've got severe heart failure"05:48 — Talk turns to transplant06:44 — Would BEAT screening have caught it sooner?07:52 — Why frontline clinicians still miss heart failure08:52 — Why early diagnosis saves lives09:29 — The red flags we're too slow to catch11:27 — Have we failed at CVD prevention?12:24 — Heart disease, climate change & the double whammy14:03 — Inside the NHS 10 Year Plan15:46 — Bringing the BEAT initiative to communities16:30 — Core20PLUS5 and tackling health inequality18:16 — Does community screening actually work?19:41 — The simple blood test that rules out heart failure22:06 — What attracted Medtronic to fund BEAT23:38 — Medtronic's roots in cardiovascular care24:45 — Social value, procurement & industry's bad rep27:25 — Scaling BEAT with ICBs and PCNs28:47 — What Gail has learned from being on the ground29:32 — Diagnosis in 60 minutes, not six weeks30:20 — Why aren't we doing this everywhere?33:56 — Reaching younger, undiagnosed people35:06 — AI echo and mass blood test screening in action36:03 — How many people are living with undiagnosed CVD?37:11 — A personal wake-up call38:23 — The obesity picture38:47 — Key takeaways so far40:02 — What heart failure really costs the NHS41:37 — Closing thoughts: earlier changes everything

🫀 If heart failure is part of your life, you don't have to face it alone.The Pumping Marvellous Foundation is the UK's leading heart failure charity — patient-led, trusted, and here for you.🔗 Visit: www.pumpingmarvellous.org💛 Donate £5 today and help someone feel less alone

#HeartFailure #HeartFailureAwareness #PumpingMarvellous #HeartFailureUnfiltered #BEATHeartHealth #CVDPrevention #EarlyDiagnosis #NHS10YearPlan #HealthInequalities #CommunityHealthcare #HeartHealth #PatientAdvocacy #NHSInnovation #HeartDisease #PopulationHealth #UKCharity #PublicHealth #Prevention #DigitalHealth #ChronicIllness

What happens when patient voice, professional education, and system change collide in a single room?

In this final episode of our four-part series, Nick Hartshorne-Evans and the team at the Pumping Marvellous Foundation explore what it really takes to shift heart failure care closer to home - and why building confidence in primary care could be one of the most important things we do for patients right now.

🎙️ Guests:

Gav: Diagnosed with heart failure at 55, two years post heart transplant, patient educator at the Pumping Marvellous Foundation

Dr. Sue Kemsley: GP in Cheshire, GPSI in Cardiology, Clinical Lead for Health Innovation Northwest Coast and the Northwest Coast Cardiac Network

Sarah Coburn: senior programme manager at Health Innovation Northwest Coast, leading a two-year heart failure programme. Sarah breaks down what the masterclass data revealed and why embedding learning into clinical practice is essential.

This episode asks the hardest question in health education: when does knowledge actually become action?

Chapters:

00:00 - Introduction & series overview

02:40 - Meet the guests: Liverpool Podcast Studios

05:08 - Why partner with a patient-led charity?

07:34 - The patient perspective: breaking stereotypes in the room

08:58 - Confidence as the missing ingredient in heart failure care

14:03 - When education creates a clinician who "doesn't fit"

23:23 - How Masterclasses support NHS workforce transformation

23:07 - What ICBs should prioritise — and why

26:44 - The groundswell model: change from the ground up

This is not just a podcast about education. It's about the missed moment - the overlooked symptom, the delayed diagnosis, the patient who visited their GP three times before someone considered heart failure. The Marvellous Masterclass was designed to close that gap, and this episode explores what we learned.

Whether you're a clinician, a commissioner, a patient, or a policymaker - this conversation is for you.

🔗 Resources & Links

• Pumping Marvellous Foundation: https://www.pumpingmarvellous.org

• Support our work: https://www.pumpingmarvellous.org/donate

• Health Innovation Northwest Coast: https://healthinnovationnwc.co.uk

The Pumping Marvellous Foundation is the UK's heart failure patient charity, created by patients for patients. We provide clear, compassionate information and advocacy to improve outcomes for people living with heart failure.

HeartFailure #HeartFailureAwareness #PrimaryCareCardiology #PumpingMarvellous #NHSEducation #HeartFailureUnfiltered #CardiovascularHealth #HealthcareInnovation #PatientVoice #WorkforceTransformation #ICB #IntegratedCare #GPTraining #HeartHealth #MarvellosMasterclass #ChronicIllness #NHSReform #HeartDisease #PatientEducation #HealthInnovation

What does it actually feel like to be discharged from hospital with heart failure and handed back to a GP who may never have managed the condition before?

In this episode of Heart Failure Unfiltered, Nick sits down with a GP specialist, a two-years post-transplant patient educator, and a patient trustee to explore one of the most consequential (and most overlooked) handovers in modern healthcare: the moment a heart failure patient returns to primary care.

This is episode three of a four-part series on the BEAT Masterclass: Heart failure and primary care - the moments that matter to the patient. If we don't equip our primary care workforce to detect, diagnose, and manage heart failure effectively, real patients pay the price. This conversation goes deep on what good looks like, what's going wrong, and what every clinician working in primary care needs to know.

🎙️ Guests:

Gav: Diagnosed with heart failure at 55, two years post heart transplant, patient educator at the Pumping Marvellous Foundation

Dr. Sue Kemsley: GP in Cheshire, GPSI in Cardiology, Clinical Lead for Health Innovation Northwest Coast and the Northwest Coast Cardiac Network

Corinne: Diagnosed with heart failure five years ago, four-year patient educator at the Pumping Marvellous Foundation, trustee

Key Terms & Concepts Discussed:

• NT-proBNP testing

• BEAT symptoms (Breathlessness, Exhaustion, Ankle swelling, and more)

• The four pillars of heart failure treatment + cardiac rehab as the fifth

• Long-term condition review in primary care

• Heart failure care plans and NICE guidelines (in place since 2018)

• Cardiac rehabilitation referral pathways

• Shared decision-making and patient self-management contracts

Chapters:

00:00 - Introduction: Heart failure, primary care & why it matters

01:37 - Meet the guests: Patient educators & a cardiology-specialist GP

02:37 - Why primary care shapes the entire heart failure experience

05:01 - The Marvellous Masterclass: What non-specialists actually took away

06:47 - Empathy at diagnosis — why the words "you have heart failure" change everything

09:21 - After discharge: The biggest clinical priorities when a patient returns to primary care

14:54 - The patient perspective: What "good" post-discharge care actually feels like

21:58 - Seeing heart failure through the patient's eyes — what would change?

30:01 - How do we scale this? The case for digital heart failure education

🏥 About the Pumping Marvellous Foundation

The Pumping Marvellous Foundation is the UK's heart failure patient charity. We produce patient-friendly resources designed by patients, support people newly diagnosed with heart failure, and work with clinicians, commissioners, and health innovation networks to improve care at every stage of the heart failure journey.

👉 Visit pumpingmarvellous.org to access free patient resources, make a donation, or find out how to get involved.

Even £5 can help us reach the next patient who needs support. Together, we can make sure no one faces heart failure alone.

📺 Subscribe for new episodes every week covering real-world heart failure care, patient stories, and clinical education.

💬 Leave a comment — we'd love to hear from clinicians and patients about your experience of heart failure in primary care.

🔔 Hit the bell so you never miss an episode of Heart Failure Unfiltered.

HeartFailure #PrimaryCare #HeartFailureAwareness #PumpingMarvellous #CardiacHealth #NTproBNP #HeartFailureEducation #GPEducation #CardiacRehab #LongTermConditions #HealthcareEducation #PatientExperience #HeartHealth #HeartFailureUnfiltered #CardiacNursing #GPTraining #ChronicIllness #HeartFailureDiagnosis #NHSPrimaryCare #PatientAdvocacy

Heart failure affects over a million people in the UK - yet most patients have never once thought to ask: "Could I have heart failure?" In this episode of Heart Failure Unfiltered, recorded live at Liverpool Podcast Studios, we dig deep into why primary care is the most powerful - and currently underleveraged - tool in the fight against heart failure.

Hosted by Nick Hartshorne-Evans, Founder & CEO of the Pumping Marvellous Foundation, this episode features an honest, unfiltered conversation with:

Dr. Sue Kemsley: GP, GPSI in Cardiology, Clinical Lead for Health Innovation Northwest Coast & the Northwest Coast Cardiac Network

Katie: Diagnosed with dilated cardiomyopathy at 25, now a patient educator with Pumping Marvellous

Gavin: Living with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy from birth, progressed to advanced heart failure, and now two years post-transplant

Together, they unpack the systemic gaps in detection and management, share powerful patient stories, and explore what it takes to genuinely transform primary care's role in heart failure outcomes.

Heart Failure Unfiltered is a podcast series by the Pumping Marvellous Foundation. This is Episode 2 of 4 of the BEAT Masterclass. Subscribe so you don't miss the rest of the series.

Chapters:

00:00 - What is this podcast series about?

00:20 - Why primary care holds the key to heart failure

01:40 - About Pumping Marvellous Foundation

02:36 - Introducing the guests: Katie, Dr. Sue Kemsley & Gavin

04:30 - Why breathlessness gets normalised & misdiagnosed

06:46 - Why primary care sits at the centre of diagnosis & management

08:30 - The Dr. Google problem & delayed GP access

14:10 - Has anyone ever asked "Do I have heart failure?"

15:30 - Shock of diagnosis: patients leaving hospital not knowing they had it

17:30 - Did the masterclasses build clinical confidence?

19:25 - Myth buster: breathlessness is NOT just ageing

19:45 - Clinical curiosity — is it taught or innate?

22:00 - How to do a thorough long-term condition review

24:30 - What does a good heart failure review actually look like?

31:22 - From hospital to home: navigating the handover gap

35:30 - Heart failure care plans — what should happen vs. reality

38:00 - What gave clinicians at the masterclass a new perspective?

42:00 - Student nurses inspired to move into cardiology

46:00 - What gives Dr. Sue Kemsley hope for the future?

48:30 - Generalist specialists & heart failure champions in every locality

53:00 - Patient educators: knowing what you know changes everything

56:10 - The tipping point: when will patients start asking about heart failure?

59:00 - How a hospital in Kilmarnock was plastered in heart failure awareness

01:01:00 - Closing reflections & what comes next

About the Pumping Marvellous Foundation

The Pumping Marvellous Foundation is the UK's heart failure patient charity — designed by patients, for patients. From clear, accessible information to peer-to-peer support and patient education programmes, they're on a mission to make sure no one faces heart failure alone.

👉 Visit: pumpingmarvellous.org

💛 Support us: Just £5 a month can help reach the next patient who needs us.

HeartFailure #PrimaryCare #HeartFailureAwareness #PumpingMarvellous #HeartHealth #GPEducation #CardiacCare #NTproBNP #HeartFailureUnfiltered #PatientEducation #ChronicIllness #Cardiology #MarvellosMasterclass #HealthcareEducation #HeartFailureDiagnosis #UKHealth #PatientAdvocacy #SelfManagement #LongTermConditions #HeartFailureSupport

Heart failure affects over 900,000 people in the UK, yet it remains one of the most underdiagnosed conditions in primary care. Too many patients are only identified after a hospital admission - often following months or years of missed opportunities. This episode asks a simple but urgent question: why aren't we catching it sooner?

In this episode of Heart Failure Unfiltered, Nick Hartshorne-Evans, founder and CEO of the Pumping Marvellous Foundation - the UK's leading heart failure patient charity - sits down with three experts at the heart of a groundbreaking education initiative. Together, they explore what happened when the Pumping Marvellous Foundation partnered with Health Innovation Northwest Coast to deliver the Marvellous Masterclass - a series of education events designed to upskill over 170 non-specialist clinicians in heart failure awareness, detection, and management.

You'll learn:

- Why heart failure is so frequently missed in primary care - and the clinical, historical, and systemic reasons behind it

- How the BEAT acronym (Breathlessness, Exhaustion, Ankle swelling, Time for an NT-proBNP) gives clinicians a simple, actionable framework for recognising symptoms

- Why NT-proBNP should be the first-line diagnostic step - and why confusion around diagnostic pathways has led to widespread inconsistency

- What the Marvellous Masterclass events revealed about baseline knowledge levels among non-specialist clinicians — and why that finding matters

- How bringing patient educators into a clinical education setting transformed engagement and recall

- What a delayed diagnosis looks like from a patient's perspective — in this case, a respiratory arrest, three months in hospital, and a life that had to be rebuilt from the ground up

Meet the guests:

🎙 Katie: diagnosed with cardiomyopathy and heart failure at 25, Katie became a Pumping Marvellous patient educator and shares her experience of years of missed diagnoses before reaching crisis point.

🎙 Dr. Sue Kemsley: a GP with 30 years of experience, a GPSI in cardiology, and clinical lead roles at Health Innovation Northwest Coast and the Northwest Coast Cardiac Network. Sue brings essential perspective on how heart failure education has evolved — and where the gaps still exist.

🎙 Sarah Coburn: senior programme manager at Health Innovation Northwest Coast, leading a two-year heart failure programme. Sarah breaks down what the masterclass data revealed and why embedding learning into clinical practice is essential.

Key takeaways for clinicians:

Heart failure is treatable — but only if it's found. The evidence is clear: patients with undiagnosed heart failure are circulating through healthcare systems, often with multiple conditions, seeing various professionals, without anyone connecting the dots. This episode makes the case that upskilling the wider workforce — not just specialists — is one of the most impactful interventions we can make. A curious, open mind, a willingness to challenge your initial hypothesis, and knowledge of a few simple tools could be the difference between a patient being diagnosed early or arriving at A&E in crisis.

This is Episode 1 of a four-part series. Future episodes will continue to explore the question that runs through every conversation: beat the diagnosis.

🫀 Support patients living with heart failure: pumpingmarvellous.org

📩 Find out more about the Marvellous Masterclass and upcoming events at pumpingmarvellous.org

HeartFailure #HeartFailureAwareness #PumpingMarvellous #PrimaryCare #CardiovascularHealth #EarlyDiagnosis #NHSEducation #HeartHealth #GPTraining #PatientVoice #HeartFailureUnfiltered #MarvellousМастерclass #ChronicIllness #CardiacHealth #HealthInnovation #MedicalEducation #HeartFailureDiagnosis #BeatTheSymptoms #NTproBNP #HeartFailureUK

Heart failure doesn't look the way people think. And that's exactly the problem.

In this raw, deeply honest episode of Heart Failure Unfiltered, Nick Hartshorne-Evans sits down with Gavin and Julie Redhead — a heart failure patient and his registered carer - for part two of their conversation. What follows is one of the most human, unguarded accounts of what it truly means to live with heart failure, not just survive a diagnosis.

Gavin was diagnosed years before most people would expect to face this. Julie became his carer long before either of them were ready. Together, they pull back the curtain on what no one sees: the days you can't get out of bed, the social events you have to cancel at the last minute, the household jobs that quietly shift hands, the grief that never gets named, and the words that cut deepest - "But you look so well."

This isn't a clinical overview. This is the truth from both sides of the kitchen table.

In this episode:

00:00 - When heart failure enters your life

02:11 - The invisible illness nobody sees

03:26 - The 9-volt battery: understanding heart failure fatigue

07:00 - "But you look so well" — the words that sting

08:17 - When household roles are forced to change

14:16 - The blue badge moment & fighting your corner

15:56 - Losing control: the hardest thing about a diagnosis

19:14 - Turning diagnosis into purpose

19:14 - The grieving process carers don't talk about

28:15 - The shocking gender gap in heart failure engagement

32:40 - From can't breathe to walking a marathon

34:02 - The most important thing Gavin would say to another patient

35:17 - Closing Message

Resources:

🌐 Pumping Marvellous Foundation: www.pumpingmarvellous.org

💬 Peer support community: Search "Help for Hearts" on Facebook

💷 Support someone with heart failure today: [email protected] — £10 makes a difference

Heart Failure Unfiltered is produced by the Pumping Marvellous Foundation — the UK's heart failure charity. Our mission is to make sure no one faces heart failure alone.

#HeartFailure #HeartFailureAwareness #HeartFailureUnfiltered #PumpingMarvellous #InvisibleIllness #ChronicIllness #CarerSupport #HeartHealth #MensHealth #ChronicFatigue #HeartFailureLife #CarersUK #PatientStories #HeartDisease #LivingWithHeartFailure #MentalHealthMatters #InvisibleDisability #ChronicIllnessCommunity #HeartFailureCarer #YouLookSoWell