the 64 bulletin
Quality of life after valve disease: a photographic experience, with Heart Valve Voice Christina Bannister, Nurse Case Manager in Cardiac Surgery at Southampton General Hospital and Nursing and Allied Health Professional Representative for SCTS
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t’s been a busy year so far at Heart Valve Voice, the charity dedicated to raising awareness of the symptoms and need for early detection and treatment of heart valve disease and an organisation that I have been an ambassador for the last few years. Their work is close to my heart as a Nurse Case Manager in Cardiac Surgery at Southampton General Hospital where I work with patients with heart valve disease every day and believe that more awareness is needed around this potentially fatal disease. As an ambassador for Heart Valve Voice I have worked on events, conferences, working groups and provided counsel and knowledge and most recently, I have been asked to be on the selection panel for their first photography competition. The Patient Portraits: A New You Photography Competition in partnership with Heart
Valve Voice and The Royal Photographic Society is aiming to help raise awareness of heart valve disease, its prevalence and symptoms and to educate audiences that with appropriate treatment, patients can return to a good quality of life. The competition was open to amateur photographers from 12 regions across the UK, Scotland, Ireland and Wales and we received so many brilliant entries. While it was so difficult to choose, we managed to agree on the winners from each region. For this second phase of the competition, each winning photographer has been paired with a local heart valve disease patient and has been tasked with creating a
photographic documentary capturing what life after heart valve disease means through the eyes of the patient. The documentaries will be displayed in the Houses of Parliament this autumn where we will select an overall winner. The competition has received some amazing support from a number of places like partner organisation, The Royal Photographic Society who have not only given their stamp of approval but have also provided promotional support advertising the competition throughout their communication channels. Another channel of support for the competition has come from MP Steve McCabe from Birmingham, a former valve disease patient himself and someone who is keen to get behind the work that Heart Valve Voice does. “I am living proof that with early diagnosis and proper treatment, these conditions needn’t be debilitating,” said Steve. Recently, one of my fellow selection panel members, Alex Rotas, Professional Documentary Photographer met with Steve to take some photos of him living his best life after valve disease treatment. The photos not only showed Steve going about his busy day as an MP but were a great example of how life doesn’t have to end with a valve disease diagnosis. Since Steve has been treated he has
