A heart attack survivor from Cwm-y-glo, near Caernarfon has raised over £2,000 after organising a fundraising Elvis tribute concert to raise awareness of the condition and give back to others in support of life-saving heart research.
Vera Price, 74, believes she owes her life to the care she received at Ysbyty Gwynedd and Broadgreen Hospital, Liverpool after her heart-attack and subsequent triple heart bypass last September. Having made a good recovery, she wanted to raise money for the British Heart Foundation to fund lifesaving research. The show was held at the Padarn Hotel, Llanberis in March and featured local performer Wynne Roberts delivering his Elvis tribute act “For the Heart”.
BHF Cymru Fundraising Manager Andy Green says, “It was a lovely evening with a warm atmosphere and Wynne playing his part as Elvis perfectly. A highlight for the audience was when he was joined by his son, Dyfan and they both sang the hit ‘Suspicious Minds’ Together with match-funding from Santander Bangor, the total raised for the BHF is £2,055.
“We are so grateful to Vera, Wynne and everyone helping to deliver this amazing event in Llanberis. For more than 60 years, the public’s generosity has funded BHF research that has turned ideas that once seemed like ‘science fiction’ into treatments that save lives every day.
“We urgently need the public’s support to keep our life saving research going, and to discover the treatments and cures of the future. We are the biggest independent funder of heart and circulatory disease research in Wales, and in the last 5 years, BHF has supported £9.5m worth of research in Wales, supporting the work of 64 researcher staff.”
Elvis tribute performer Reverend Wynne Roberts BEM, who is also Ysbyty Gwynedd’s Chaplain, says, “I am so pleased to be able to partner with BHF in giving this concert as an Elvis Tribute Act. Cardiac illness can affect any of us and I am sure it has touched the lives of every single family in our community. Yet so many of the cardiac conditions are either preventable or treatable. BHF has been at the forefront the battle for the heart and mind of the nation. To quote Elvis – we do not have a ‘wooden heart’ – ours need to be looked after with care.”
Vera lives with her husband Dafydd, 77. She believed herself to be fit and healthy, regularly walking for miles with friends and attending tai chi and martial arts classes.
However, in September 2021, Vera was walking with her friend Gwenda Humphries, 69, around Llyn Padarn. Gwenda commented that Vera seemed short of breath. Feeling a pain across her chest and arm, Vera suspected she may be having a heart attack. She refused Gwenda’s offer to call an ambulance and phoned her husband, Dafydd, who drove her to Gwynedd Hospital.
At the hospital, Vera was told she needed a stent. Following an angiogram, she found out she had to have a triple bypass operation in Broad Green Hospital, Liverpool. After the procedure, Vera spent a month in hospital recovering, which was challenging as no visitors were allowed in hospitals due to the Covid-19 pandemic. However, she says frequent video chats with her grandchildren kept her spirits up and motivated her on her recovery.
Vera, who is also working with the BHF in a campaign to raise awareness of the fact that heart attacks affect women as well as men, says, “I didn’t expect to have a heart attack, I believed I was fit and healthy and was active every day. After my experience I want to help in any way I can and hope we raise as much awareness and money as possible for the BHF’s research.”
