I was born with a congenital diaphragmatic hernia and required emergency life saving surgery which I received at Birmingham Children’s Hospital in 1994. 

As a result of this condition, the hole in my diaphragm allowed my stomach, intestines and bowels to move up into my chest cavity, resulting in only one fully functioning lung. 

Moving through childhood and into adulthood I have endured a number of hospital admissions for chronic health conditions including severe GERD, Gastroparesis, Barrett’s Oesophagus, and Non Diabetic Reactive Hypoglycaemia . The long term impact of this damage to my gastrointestinal system has resulted in me relying on a PegJ feeding tube for all my nutrition. 

Aside from these conditions, I also developed acute deformities that have resulted in surgical treatment including Kypho-Scoliosis (curvature of the spine) of which I had one major and two minor surgeries on to correct the curvature that was 78 degrees out of ‘classic alignment’ using 2 titanium rods and 22 bolts as the reconstructive measure. 

These conditions have honestly just been a part of normal life to me, I have never known any different. 

I set out to prove statistics wrong with my conditions and spent my younger years training daily as a competitive swimmer. I took up road biking with British Cycling and spent so much time active. 

Entering adulthood and progressively facing more challenges and appointments with my health, I became aware that I also had Pectus Excavatum. Over a short time, I found myself becoming more and more breathless. I had an increased heart rate only after very minor activity, and extreme pain in my chest on exertion. After numerous local consultants telling me they were unable to do anything to help me, I was losing hope and dreading having to fight yet another condition in my daily life. However, I was incredibly fortunate to have been put in touch with Mr Joel Dunning, who was in the process of organising the RESTORE trial. I had some tests done locally and some at the James Cook hospital, Middlesborough. Within twelve months of first being contacted by Joel, I was enlisted for The Ravitch Procedure on the 4th of January 2024. 

My surgery involved around 20 chest wall fractures, in order to reconstruct my chest wall, and I now have 3 horizontal and 1 vertical bars built into my chest wall relieving some pressure off my heart and lung which were being compressed as a result of this deformity. 

I was very unprepared, in denial, and over confident regarding how painful this procedure would be. However, I am now 7 months post op and am starting to feel the benefits of the operation. Before surgery, my Haller index was around 7. Following surgery this has decreased to 4, which although is classed still as severe, for me I feel that the space created is noticeable. I can never thank Joel and his wonderful team enough, and the care I received at James Cook was nothing short of outstanding, I was a longer stay patient due to my other medical conditions posing some problems, but 10 days post op I was on my way to restart my recovery at home.