"Heart failure has taken so many things away from me including my dream of becoming a mum"

“I’ve had heart problems my whole life, as I was born with a hole in my heart,” explains Vicky Small from Bournemouth. While in her 30s she was diagnosed with heart failure, a debilitating long-term condition. 

“Living with heart failure affects me in so many ways. Physically, I always feel exhausted and drained because my heart can’t pump blood around my body effectively. But it also means my heart won’t tolerate my body carrying a child”.

When Vicky was 15, her mitral valve collapsed, and she had open heart surgery to replace it. The mitral valve keeps your blood moving in the right direction. Unfortunately, there was permanent damage to Vicky's heart, and she developed atrial fibrillation, a condition where the heart beats irregularly. After numerous complications, Vicky needed to have another mitral valve repair. A few years later, she was then given the devastating news that she was living with heart failure.

Although she had a history of heart problems, Vicky saw a specialist to discuss her options about starting a family with her partner. But she was advised that her heart would be under too much pressure if she became pregnant. “I left the meeting with the specialist feeling devastated, I always hoped I could find a way to have a family.”

Despite this news, Vicky has always been extremely positive about her future. “I feel so incredibly lucky to be alive and have what I have. Every day that I wake up is a privilege, and I try and make the best of it”. Vicky also finds hope knowing the British Heart Foundation is funding research that helps discover new treatments and medicines for heart failure patients just like her. 

How regenerative medicine can repair damaged hearts

25% of all UK deaths are caused by heart and circulatory disease. Having a heart attack can cause someone to lose around 1 billion heart muscle cells, which can damage the heart and led to heart failure. The only real cure for heart failure is a heart transplant. Regenerative medicine is a cutting-edge field of science that looks at different ways to repair (or “regenerate”) damaged areas of the body. This search is particularly urgent when it comes to the heart, which can’t easily heal itself.

BHF Professor Paul Riley and his team at the University of Oxford are working in the field of regenerative medicine. They are investigating whether growing new blood and lymphatic vessels in the heart could improve heart function after a heart attack.

The lymphatic system is a drainage system that helps protect us from infection and disease. It is part of the body’s immune system. Essentially, the lymphatic system is a network of tissues, vessels and organs that work together to clear fluids from our tissues.

Injured hearts contain excess fluids from damaged, leaky blood vessels and signals that promote inflammation and scarring. This environment is important for responding to the damage immediately following a heart attack, but later it can limit the growth of new cells that might help the heart to repair.

Professor Riley and his team have shown that promoting lymphatic vessel growth improves heart function in rodent models of heart attack.

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