"It was enlightening and educative"

As a fit and active person I was shocked to experience a cardiac event in late 2022. The significance of 'family health history' seemed to overide what had been healthy lifestyle. After my procedure at St Barts, I was offered the Cardiac Rehab Service. I initially wondered how much it would benefit me, as I maintained an active life before hand. I am really glad that I attended and I would urge patients to take up the offer of the face-to-face classes as you get a lot more than you might anticipate or expect. Group based face-to-face activity is much more fun and relatable, in my opinion. I was humbled and inspired by listening to the experiences of other people. It was enlightening and educative to exercise alongside those who have less serious to very serious cardiac event experiences, and to see how people of all abilities make progress.

The cardiac rehab team were lovely to work with and very attentive, given there was a wide range of needs in the class. The online education classes, completed prior to the excercise class, are informative and helpful and I could see that this is built on for patients with more complex needs where food intake can impact on exercise, blood sugars etc. This made me realise the whole package of aftercare is a personalised intervention, so patients can be confident that their individual circumstances are held in mind. I was very encouraged that the rehab team were alert to the needs of new starters, helping people to adapt some of the exercises, where necessary. It is wonderful to see everyone progress as the weeks pass.

As a person with no 'off switch' I found the circuit exercise really helpful, especially proper attention to warm-up and cool-down, learning to pace, that sometimes "less is more" in rehabilitation and that 10 minutes of meditation/relaxation can so markedly improve your day. I have been able to apply a lot of the exercise techniques at home and they are especially beneficial when I am working from home and take short breaks away from the laptop.

Best of all and this being East London, Abi provided an excellent and international soundtrack to the class. This made the whole experience fun and joyous and accommodated my incessant madcap dancing!

I can highly commend the face-to-face cardiac rehab class in Newham, so much so, that I would be happy to do it all over again....but without a cardiac event as a precursor! Huge thanks to the cardiac rehab team for a lovely experience.