A MOTHER is supporting a campaign to raise awareness of heart disease after two pioneering heart operations saved her life.

Freshbrook resident Christine Cox and her daughter, Helen Craddock, were at last week’s launch of the British Heart Foundation in Swindon’s The Year of the Heart campaign.

They were there to pay tribute to the vital role the charity plays in raising funds for research and putting out the message about the importance of caring for your heart.

At the launch it emerged that Swindon has the worst figures for heart disease in the south west.

The Year of the Heart is designed to raise funds and increase awareness of the symptoms of a heart attack to enable the person to recognise what is happening and reach hospital as quickly as possible for treatment.

Mrs Cox, 50, suffered her first heart attack aged 38 and had a triple heart bypass, followed a few years later by a quadruple heart bypass.

She had already seen her father die at the age of 51 from the same condition, but she did not immediately suspect what was wrong.

Mrs Cox said: “The first thing I said to the doctor when she said ‘you’ve had a heart attack’, was ‘I’m too young’, it was a shock.”

At first Mrs Cox said she had felt light-headed and been vomiting violently, but only displayed the pain in the chest symptoms later.

“I woke up thinking there’s a spider crawling down my back - it was just sweat,” she said.

At this point she was taken to the hospital by her husband and treated straight away – she was still having the heart attack when she arrived.

Miss Craddock, from Reading, said: “It’s very frightening when you think your mum’s going to die.”

She was also forced to wait by the phone for an agonising seven-and-a-half hours to hear if her mum had made it through the quadruple bypass operation.

“The relief was amazing,” said Miss Craddock, who took six weeks off work to help her mother recover.

“The British Heart Foundation has made a massive impact on my life and my mum’s life.

“I’m just glad for it to be honest – what they do is just amazing.”

Since then Mrs Cox has cut back her smoking using hypnotherapy and watches her weight carefully instead of just buying accommodating clothes.

She believes the advances that British Heart Foundation funding made possible could have saved her father.

“My father died quite young of a heart attack,” she said.

“They were only just talking about bypass surgery then.

“Hundreds of people have it now, so it’s amazing the amount of money that’s gone into research to be able to promote something like that.

“I have been in Swindon three years and I would support the British Heart Foundation wherever I am living – I wouldn’t be here without it.

“I don’t want to leave these guys just yet.”

For more information on the campaign visit the website www.yearoftheheart.org or ring 01793 692982.