Taken to the brink of death

My hands resting in my lap, I felt my chest rise and fall in time with my laboured breathing as I listened, wide-eyed, to my consultant. He sat in front of me drawing a picture of my lungs on a piece of paper, explaining how most of the arteries that should be pumping oxygen and blood around my body were blocked.

‘It’s very serious,’ he said, outlining the affected areas with his pencil, explaining how it was only a matter of time before the clogged arteries caused my blood pressure to rise, putting pressure on my heart that would prove fatal. It was June