“An ECG screening through the Carli Lansley Foundation has saved my life”

The kids and I were delighted to recently meet up with Harry Jenkins, and his parents Lorraine and Gary

Harry, then aged 16, attended the 2nd screening day our Foundation held – in October 2019 at Leigh Primary Care Centre – after seeing a post about our charity on Facebook.

The family had long held concerns that Harry had a heightened heartbeat, as he has been diagnosed as having Crohn’s disease, but all previous referrals had dismissed such concerns as being down to ‘anxiety’ or ‘being overweight’.

Harry was booked in for an ECG at our screening day and, as the family anticipated, the reading showed an irregular heartbeat. Harry was then given a detailed Echocardiagram at the screening day. Based on the results of both screenings, the doctor attending on the day diagnosed Harry with an ‘asymptomatic pre-excitation’ and decided that he would be asking for a second consultation from St. George’s Hospital, London.

In December 2019, Harry discussed the results of his screenings with Dr. Lee at St. George’s and he was booked in to have further tests. Unfortunately, due to COVID restrictions these tests did not take place until February 2021 when Harry was advisded that an operation would be required.

In July 2021, Harry went in to hospital but the patient before him suffered complications which meant Harry’s operation had to be cancelled. In August 2021, Harry was re-admitted and this time the operation was performed. The medical term for the procedure he underwent is “ablation of manifest posteroseptal accessory parthway with malignant conduction”. Due to ongoing COVID restrictions, Lorraine and Gary were not allowed to be with Harry on the day in hospital but they were relieved to finally receive the call that they could take him home the next evening

Over the following months, Harry was constantly monitored until he finally received the “all-clear” in February 2022.

Our Foundation is delighted that our screening day enabled Harry to get the checks his family had wanted for so long. At one stage in the referral procedure, Harry was told bluntly that had the heart defect not been found, he would not likely have lived much beyond the age of 25-35. So, whereas our charity has always said we’ve ‘changed’ people’s lives by getting them the referrals required in this instance the Jenkins family have said (without hesitation) that the ECG Harry had in October 2019 has saved his life, and that they will always be grateful for what our family is doing in memory of Carli.

Harry, now 19, volunteers at Langdon Essex Wildlife Trust and also at a Falconry Centre in Barleylands – two jobs that require him to be physically active and two jobs that Harry (and his family) now know he can undertake safe in the knowledge his heart defect has been successfully resolved

Our huge thanks go to Lorraine, Gary and (especially) Harry for meeting with me, Jess and Ethan and for sharing his story – in the hope that this will encourage lots more young people to get checked”