Retirement party helps to raise £610 for the Every Heart Matters appeal

A party to celebrate the retirement of a Bury St Edmunds man has helped to boost the funds of the My WiSH Charity’s Every Heart Matters appeal.

It was held at the town’s Station Hill Social Club for David Hamilton and raised a total of £610 and was attended by nearly 90 people.

The 65-year-old retired as a product controller at Muller Milk, in Thetford, and had been in the milk business for the past 32 years.

Back in 2016 he went to his doctor’s surgery as the inhalers he was using for his asthma were not helping. He was getting short of breath and his arms were tingling.

The next day he returned for a full examination and was told he had a heart murmur.

“And that’s what started the ball rolling for me,” he said.

A few months later he had an appointment at the West Suffolk Hospital where it was found he had angina.

Mr Hamilton, who lives in Severn Road, Bury St Edmunds, with his wife Ruth, 57, who works in the HR department at the hospital, and his 30-year-old daughter Diane, who works at the Womens’ Refuge, had follow up appointments including a heart scan in January this year.

He was subsequently prescribed with heart tablets and a spray to help his condition but an operation may well have to be carried out in the future.

“All through the staff and treatment I have received has been absolutely brilliant as they took me step by step through the procedure and I could not fault them one little bit,” he said.

“I thought I may need their help in the future so that’s why I decided to have the party and raise the money,” he added.

The appeal aims to raise £500,000 to build a brand new cardiac diagnostic unit at the hospital.

The West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust is investing £5.2m in developing a state of the art cardiac suite that will provide quicker access to more treatments, but the £500,000 My WiSH Charity is hoping to raise will lead to the whole unit, which is currently fragmented on different floors, being brought together in one purpose-built centre.

If you would like to donate to the Every Heart Matters Appeal you can do so by going to Justgiving.com/ehma or text EHMA17 £10 to 70070.

Pictured above at the West Suffolk Hospital with his cheque for the Every Heart Matters appeal is David Hamilton with, left to right, Mark Bessey, cardiac healthcare support worker; Anna Mills, chief cardiac physiologist; Dr Liam Ring, cardiac consultant, Caroline Pryke, chief cardiac physiologist; and Teresa Worley, cardiology nurse specialist.