4 minute read
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
It’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
gone on to achieve amazing things, “Steve was such a lovely and informative host,” recalled Alex. “My remit was to show that there’s life after heart valve disease, and with Steve’s help I think I managed to demonstrate that. Steve was representative of not only life – but energy, drive, focus and an abundance of joy.”
Steve, as well as the patients involved in the photography competition, and many of the patients that I have worked with heart valve disease are all now able to get the most out of their lives either through going back to work, spending time with their families, getting involved in activities or getting out and seeing the world. Things they would not be able to do without timely diagnosis and treatment. This is why the work that Heart Valve Voice does through events like the photography competition or their upcoming European Heart Valve Disease Awareness day are so important in helping to raise awareness. They are celebrating the ‘power of positive ageing’, which just so happens to be the theme for the awareness day, through heart valve disease treatment and what can be more positive than getting to have more years to do the things you want to do?
The regional finalists are well underway now photographing their patient models going about their active everyday lives and living them to the fullest after their heart valve disease treatment. It is going to be a real pleasure to have the chance to look through all of the amazing photographic documentaries to choose the national winner. Valve disease patients who have been treated and have gained back their quality of life are truly inspirational and prove that there is real power behind positive ageing.
Alex Rotas, Professional Documentary Photographer, met with MP Steve McCabe from Birmingham to take some photos of him living his best life after valve disease treatment
To find out more about the Heart Valve Voice visit their website: www.heartvalvevoice.com, to see the photographs of our regional winners visit the Patient Portraits website: https:// heartvalvevoice.com/photo-competition and to learn more about the upcoming European Heart Valve Disease Awareness Day on 8 September visit the website: https://heartvalveday.eu n
Upcoming Courses - 2018
11th September Introduction to Cardiothoracic Surgery Course
Coventry Education Centre
29th September ST7B – Clinical examination course for FRCS (C-Th)
Papworth Hospital, Cambridge
19-21st November ST3A – Introduction to Specialty Training in Cardiothoracic Surgery Course
Location to be confirmed
27-29th November ST4A – Core Cardiac Surgery Course
Location to be confirmed
