Steve Smith knows better than most the importance of maintaining good heart health.
Having migrated to Australia in 1999, the now 59-year-old Englishman was given a wake-up call just months into life Down Under when he was told he needed a heart transplant.
While the operation in Melbourne proved successful, Mr Smith hit trouble again when he suffered a heart attack in 2012.
His heart has been “slowly declining” ever since, with the Lockyer Valley resident now awaiting a second transplant through the Prince Charles Hospital in Brisbane.
In the meantime, Mr Smith works twice a week with Nurses and Exercise Physiologists at West Moreton Health’s Jaghu Gym for Chronic Conditions, to prepare his body for the physically demanding journey ahead.
With the Heart Foundation’s national Heart Week running from May 6-12, Mr Smith said now was a perfect time for others to take stock of their heart health.
“People need to know how important it is to look after your heart because in most cases, you only get one,” Mr Smith, who moved from Victoria to Queensland in 2004, said.
“I’ve been lucky in some ways and unlucky in others, but there are certainly things people can do – such as not smoking and exercising regularly – to improve heart health.
“I went through a fairly strict medical process to migrate to Australia, but we’d only been here a few months when I got crook with heart failure. I went downhill pretty quick.
“There were a few things the doctors looked into as a cause but in the end they were ruled out and the only thing they could find was that when I moved to Australia, I picked up an infection.
“So you just never know, which is why it’s so important to have good heart health.
“The heart Nurses and Exercise Physiologists in the Jaghu gym are helping me a lot with that. It’s a good team down there, they’re all good at what they do.
“I’ve been to almost every appointment because I think it helps me a lot mentally, as well as physically. I’d say I’m in a pretty good condition for a man with my condition.”
A father of two and grandfather of five, Mr Smith said his family had been a driving force in his quest to overcome his health hurdles.
“Before I got the first transplant, the doctors asked me what I hoped to get out of it and I said, ‘I’d like to walk one of my daughters down the aisle and be a grandparent’,” he said.
“Twenty-four years later, both of those things have happened and I believe most of that’s because I am a positive person.
“I’m not really that sort of person to get too down about things. I’m more of a ‘what can we do next?’ sort of person.
“Staying positive is what has kept me going for so long. I try to think of the good things, not the bad things.
“My wife, Janine, has also been a massive support through all we have been through.”
For more on Heart Week, visit Heart Week 6–12 May 2024 | Heart Foundation.
Do you or a family member need your heart health checked? Make an appointment with your GP.