How to reduce risk of heart attack and stroke: Ben’s story

When Ben was 42, he went to his GP surgery for an NHS health check, expecting nothing more than routine results.

But he was shocked when the nurse doing his checks told him his chances of having a heart attack or stroke in the next 10 years was more than 18 percent.

I left the doctor’s surgery and burst into tears.

"I can’t remember walking out of the doctor’s surgery; it was that bad,” he says. “I went to my car, and I burst into tears.”

Ben, now 46, is an accountant for a hotel near where he lives in Consett, County Durham. He says his greatest fear at that moment was dying.

What would my husband do if I was gone?

“Everything rushed through my head. I thought about my husband, David, who is deaf and relies on me for a lot of things – telephone calls, doctor’s appointments and hospital checks. How would he manage if I was ill or died?”

The news was a turning point for Ben. He decided almost immediately to start making lifestyle changes.

The practice nurse, Hazel, calculated Ben’s risk using the cardiovascular disease risk calculator QRISK. She supported him to reduce it with referrals, encouragement and explanations.

“Hazel explained everything very clearly and was calm and compassionate,” says Ben. “She was inspirational: she said, ‘you can do this.’

Hazel told Ben about some of the lifestyle improvements he needed to make to reduce the risk to his health.

I had to change my daily habits

Since his early twenties, Ben had been smoking about 20 cigarettes a day. 

His cholesterol levels were high and since the age of 25 he had been taking medication to reduce his high blood pressure. By the time he was in his thirties his weight had reached 20 stone – it had reduced a little since then to about 18.5 stone.

Ben started taking statins to reduce his cholesterol, but knew he also needed to take action to change his daily habits. 

“The first thing I decided to do was to give up cigarettes,” says Ben. “I started straightaway, with nicotine patches and a vape. I remember day 7 was the hardest. I even dreamt I was still smoking.”

The NHS stop smoking app really motivated me.

He downloaded the NHS stop smoking app and found the regular messages about how his health was improving gave him the motivation he needed to continue.

About 2 weeks on from his NHS check, Ben had cut down to just a few cigarettes a day.

Hazel referred him to a stop smoking clinic in nearby Hexham and, with their help, he stopped completely.

“It was a 12-week course and by the tenth week I didn’t even need to go back. I had become an ex-smoker.

“I had never had much self-control, but it was that reality check I had got at the doctor’s. It changed everything and gave me the will to stop.”

It was fun getting creative in the kitchen

Like many people, Ben found that while giving up smoking he put on weight – in his case about half a stone.

He says he had always struggled with his weight. “I have always been on the larger side since I was a teenager. It was because I had a sedentary lifestyle and I loved food.

“Also, I have always had desk jobs, and I would snack while sitting and working. Focusing on the computer it’s so easy to start picking at things in an absent-minded way and to overeat.”

Ben qualified for weight loss medication and his GP prescribed him a pill called Orlistat, which he took for 2 months, alongside a low-fat diet. He lost 2 stone in that time.

I really enjoyed cooking healthier meals and saw it as a challenge.

Buoyed by that early success, Ben stopped taking the weight loss medication and joined a slimming club.

“I absolutely love cooking – it's one of my big passions. I changed what I was buying and cooking. 

“I enjoyed it and saw it as a challenge. I used to love spring rolls and found a way to make them with lasagne sheets in the air fryer instead of frying them. They went amazingly crispy, and my husband David and I ate them with a Japanese sauce.

“Before, if I was busy, I would sometimes buy ready meals, but I stopped that and started cooking everything from scratch. I would think, right, what can I make for dinner tonight that is not a salad.”

Friends joined my weight-loss challenge 

“Rather than seeing it as having to give up things, I was enjoying the changes I was making in my life.”

Ben even encouraged some colleagues at work to join the slimming club.

“One of them lost 4 stone and came off her diabetes medication. We would encourage each other. She lived in the same village, and I would often cook our dinner and take a plate up to her.”

Ben’s positive approach really paid off. By March 2023, 13 months after the shock news about his health, he had lost 6 stone and was down to 12.5 stone.

“I was Slimmer of the Year at the slimming club and I was presented with a tie.”

The joy of buying a new wardrobe

“I did have to buy a new wardrobe, but I kept an old hoodie just to show how much weight I had lost.”

Ben’s health check had happened in February 2022. In December that year he went back to the doctor to have his QRISK done again.

The results showed his risk had reduced from more than 18 percent to 4.3 percent. He had achieved that positive change in just 10 months.

“The practice nurse Hazel did that calculation in front of me,” he recalls. “It was amazing. I was just beaming.

“My blood pressure, weight, cholesterol, and risk of having a heart attack or stroke had all come down.”

Now I feel younger in myself.

Ben admits that taking on so many lifestyle changes at once was a challenge, but he says: “David kept me going, also friends at work, family and even Hazel, the nurse at the GP surgery.

“In the back of my mind it was the fear of having a heart attack or stroke – I knew I had to do it.”

As well as improving his heart health, Ben says his lifestyle changes have brought many improvements.

“I feel absolutely amazing now. I feel younger in myself.

“My smoker’s cough has gone and I have enjoyed buying new clothes.

“Before, I would often get out of breath, just moving around or walking up stairs. Doing up my shoelaces was hard work. 

“Now I can do those things without getting out of breath. I move more easily and I have more zest for life.”

Enjoying life together

Ben adds that his husband David (pictured below) also lost a stone as a result of the healthier meals they were enjoying at home. 

“We really enjoy the day-to-day now. We still enjoy going out to eat, but if we go to dinner I will probably choose an Italian restaurant and have a tomato-based sauce with pasta.

“David and I will walk in the Lake District and walking the dogs is now so much more of a joy.

“I spent my twenties and thirties not bothering much about my health but then I decided to make changes as a result of a shock in my forties. 

“But I would say to others, don’t wait to get a shock, just start now and enjoy the changes in your life.”

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