Seven marathons, seven days, seven continents - right after a heart attack and a double bypass

“It was probably not the best thing to do, but I really wanted to do it, and so I did,” he says.

Gianni and Ranulph

Named by the Guinness Book of World Records as the world’s greatest living explorer, Sir Ranulph Fiennes has spent his life pursuing adventure, risking life and limb in some of the most ambitious expeditions ever undertaken. Despite his active lifestyle, Sir Ranulph suffered a heart attack while waiting on board a plane at Bristol Airport.

“Luckily, the pilot hadn’t taken off yet, and within minutes of my collapsing, two first responders came rushing in with a defibrillator. I was then taken to Bristol Royal Infirmary, which is where Professor Gianni Angelini performed the emergency heart bypass that saved my life,” Sir Ranulph explains.

Beating heart surgery

Most forms of heart surgery require the patient’s chest to be opened and an artificial pump to take over the work of their heart and lungs during the operation. This is a traumatic event that takes considerable time to recover from. Surgeons are constantly seeking alternative, less invasive approaches to repair damaged hearts.

Gianni Angelini, BHF Professor of Cardiac Surgery at Bristol Heart Institute, pioneered the technique of ‘beating heart surgery’ which allows bypass surgery to be carried out while the heart is still beating, instead of a mechanical pump taking over the action of the heart. It’s less traumatic for the body and patients generally recover more quickly.

“The aim of doing the operation is not just to prolong people’s life but to give them a good quality of life, and for Sir Ranulph that is the ability to do what he has done all his life,” Professor Angelini explains.

I thank him for my life

In fact, just three months after his surgery, Sir Ranulph ran seven marathons in seven days on each of the seven continents – from Patagonia (South America) to the Falkland Islands, Sydney (Australia), Singapore (Asia), London (Europe), Cairo (Africa) and New York (North America).

In 2005, he also climbed Everest, getting within 300m of the summit when chest pain, on solid ice, in the middle of the night, forced him to abort the mission. Sir Ranulph went on to conquer Everest on his third attempt in 2008, one of more than 30 expeditions that have helped him raise £19m for charities including the BHF – a feat that would not have been possible without Professor Angelini’s intervention.

“I am impressed by what Professor Angelini does and is still doing today. I am forever grateful to him, and I thank him for my life,” Sir Ranulph says.

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