An iconic British Heart Foundation red bench has been unveiled in Kilbroney Park, Rostrevor, to recognise a Co. Down woman who had a pacemaker fitted at just 20 years of age, due to an underlying heart condition.

Caoimhe Loughran from Newry was fit and active throughout her youth – playing Gaelic football to county standard.

But at 17, she started suffering from exhaustion and a fast heart rate – feeling as though her heart was “pounding” through her chest.

After the symptoms became more pronounced and she suffered numerous collapses, Caoimhe was told she had an electrical conduction disorder which was causing her heart rate to go dangerously slow.

Caoimhe was fitted with an Implantable Loop Recorder which detected pauses in her heart rhythm.

After experiencing episodes in her sleep, Caoimhe was fitted with a pacemaker at the age of only 20 and spent 13 days in hospital recovering before being discharged on Christmas Eve 2022.

Now 23, Caoimhe, who has recently finished a master’s in public health specialising in heart health, is keen to share her story to advocate for young people with heart conditions.

It’s been a difficult journey for Caoimhe as she felt at the start she was being ignored.

The Covid pandemic in 2020 certainly, she believes, stalled her diagnosis.

She admits: “I did have a quite a long battle with trying to get heard unfortunately, I do feel I was dismissed for being a woman with the belief that my symptoms were down to my menstrual cycle or the pill.

“I was told I had anxiety on numerous occasions as well,” Caoimhe added.

“It was all just quite difficult to navigate to be honest, and I just felt like no one was listening to me. Maybe because I had such intense surveillance as a child for the hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, they kind of thought they’d done a lot of tests on me and had signed me off just a year prior to this happening.

“When I was 17, the palpitations started to get a lot worse and much more frequent.

“Every time I had an episode the next one would be sooner and longer.

“It meant I had to stop playing a lot of my sport – I played basketball and Gaelic football, training every night of the week. I played for multiple teams at all different levels.

“So, I was very active, very, very active. People started making comments about my complexion, how pale I was and how dark my eyes were. I just simply was not well, but no one could understand why.

“Then Covid happened and all the pressure that brought to the hospitals.

“I remember presenting to A&E one time and because of Covid I felt they just didn’t have time for me. When I look back, if my diagnosis had come a lot earlier it probably would have prevented a lot of the other things I went through.

“I was put on medication for my palpitations, like beta blockers and I had heart monitors which picked up extra heartbeats.

“So, they were treating all of that – but the problem was when my GP referred me to a cardiologist there was a long wait.”

During this time, Caoimhe had also just started university, so this brought an added pressure to her life.

She adds: “I was doing nutrition in my undergrad, and for the first two years I was not 100%.

“I was medicated, and I was just struggling to live a normal life like all my friends who were happy and healthy.

“I had stopped all my sports and was becoming less and less active – I just knew I was unwell.

“Then in September 2022 I went into my placement year of my undergrad – that’s when it was getting to be the worst that it ever had been.

“In the first week of my placement, I ended up collapsing at work, I completely passed out – broke my glasses, my tooth came out and I had a bulge on my head.

“It was then that that my doctor decided to put in the Implantable Loop Recorder – so they could see what was happening and possibly get a diagnosis.

“I remember when the person put it in, they said ‘oh don’t worry you’ll have this back out of you in three years, nothing will happen and you’ll never need any other device’.”

However, just two months later, episodes in her sleep did happen which forced Caoimhe, at just 20, to have a pacemaker implanted.

Caoimhe continues: “Around December I was sleeping one night and my heart was stopping in my sleep.

“I remember when I woke up the next morning, I had loads of phone calls from the hospital saying you need to come in right away.

“I had ‘Heart Block’ – it’s hard to describe fully but basically what was happening was the heartbeat would generate from the top and when it got sent to the bottom it wouldn’t fire back up. So that there was like a break in the circuit when there was a pause between beating – hence I started collapsing.

“When I was sleeping that particular night it was getting progressively longer, the first pause was maybe four seconds, and then the next pause was like 11 seconds and then the next 20 seconds – the pauses were becoming too long.

“They theorized that if they didn’t intervene, I probably would end up just not waking up as it potentially could pause too long and then not start beating again.

“That was obviously very difficult to hear, I mean at that time I was only 20 – it just was crazy.

“All the comments about not needing to worry when they put in the loop recorder, even though I appreciate they were just trying to make me feel better because I was so young – I guess it just made it all so much more unexpected.

“You never really expect anything like that to happen, especially when you are so young.

“Another thing they said was that every time my heart paused for like 11 seconds or 20 seconds, how much my heart would then have to work to get back up to speed. It would have been seriously tiring my heart out and therefore left me feeling exhausted.

“You go to sleep, and then you wake up and think you’ve got a full night’s sleep, but within that time your heart rate had slowed to a dangerous level four times. It is impossible to have a restful night sleep if that’s happening – and that was basically how I had been living.

“I was diagnosed with a condition called Sick Sinus Syndrome or Sinus Node Disfunction. The MRI showed that structurally my heart was normal – there was no scarring from when my heart was stopping, it was purely conduction related. Basically, electrically my heart was all over the place.

“When I was told I had to have a pacemaker I just felt so vulnerable to be honest.”

Caoimhe struggled to take in that at just 20 years of age, she would need a pacemaker.

The Co Down woman always felt they were for older people. She was naturally also greatly concerned for her future.

“It’s quite a heavy thing to be told when you’re so young and have lived a generally normal and healthy life until that point,” stresses Caoimhe.

“I was given a British Heart Foundation book “Living with a Pacemaker,” and I remember on the front was a gorgeous elderly lady, and I just felt like an alien.

“I could not relate to the people or the demographic that I thought these devices were being used in – I had never known or even heard of a younger person having anything like this.

“That whole month of December that I was in hospital I remember it being very difficult for me because I was on a ward with a lot of elderly people. I was very angry at that time – “why is it happening to me. I’m so young”.

“I felt very sorry for myself at that time. It was just very frustrating and quite shocking, I felt really alone to be quite honest and very fearful.

“I got my pacemaker put in on 22nd December and was discharged on Christmas Eve. It really was the worst time of my life, I was so low, even when I got discharged, I was very depressed.

“I had so many questions about my future and children that I would love to have in the future.

“And just how is this going to affect me? You know all the surveillance and surgeries with the batteries being changed and the leads being changed. I had no anticipation for any of this in my future, but this was my future now and there’s nothing I could do about that.

“I was kind of grieving this future that I thought I was going to have and trying to establish, what is it going to look like now and how different it was going to be.

“I just felt like I had no control over anything in my life and that this was just happening and I just had to get on with it.

“I look back at my 21st birthday, that was mad for me. I remember having dinner with my friends that evening and looking at my scar on my chest.

“I just felt this is not what a 21-year-old should be going through right now. It was just very, very lonely”.

Throughout Caoimhe’s cardiac journey, her family have been a great support mechanism.

She credits her mother, father, siblings and boyfriend for giving her the strength to have a positive outlook on life.

“My family, they’re really my world, my rock,” says Caoimhe.

“I have a great relationship with my parents, so I felt able to confide in them about how I was feeling, my mum in particular.

“She is a very special woman and supported me hugely, helping me a lot with reaching out to mental health services, I did Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and things like that.“My dad works within mental health and suicide prevention, so he’s a great guy to talk to about things as well.

“I have a brilliant support system and with my brothers too. I’m their only sister, the only girl in our family, I’m very protected by my family – they were all so supportive, I couldn’t have done it without any of them. And my boyfriend too, although he couldn’t really understand and was as shocked as me.

“I kept thinking am I going to be a burden on him? I also felt guilty all the time for being unwell and maybe missing a date night or missing doing something together.

“But he’s very understanding and that’s all I can really ask for. He’s made me feel like we are going to have a happy and long future together and nothing’s changed.”

Since having the pacemaker fitted, Caoimhe’s life has improved considerably.

She’s no longer on medication and simply has an annual check-up with her consultant.

While team sports are no longer possible, Caoimhe is enjoying still being active by walking and cycling.

Caoimhe adds: “I still have a small bout of symptoms occasionally, but I have to say ever since I got the pacemaker implanted my quality of life has drastically improved.

“I have such a better life. I would say within about a month or two of getting my pacemaker fitted, I could really notice, my complexion was better, no palpitations and so much less tiredness, I was nowhere near as fatigued. I was just looking and feeling a lot better.

“I’m not on any medication now, it could always be reviewed again if I experience symptoms – but for now, I just have my yearly pacemaker checkup and a yearly appointment with my consultant.

“I also have a device at my bedside that sends data to the medical team, and if I am having any episodes, I can press a button.

“I receive phone calls quite regular to check in on me as well. But right now, it’s just me and my pacemaker and I’m really happy with that.

“I’m not doing my sports unfortunately; I was told that the contact and team sports would not be viable with my device.

“So that side of my life is gone, but I love walking, cycling and things like that – I have thought about coaching, that’s something I’d love to do.

“I got a cat shortly after my diagnosis and I just love chilling with her. I have a lot of good friends, and I love living in Belfast and going to see music, comedy and things like that.

“The support that I received from my university at the time was nothing short of extraordinary, when it came to going to hospital during my placement, they said I had reported enough already to have successfully finished my placement.

“Graduating in summer 2024 was a milestone – I was asked to give the student speech at my graduation ceremony.

“It was such a proud moment for me not only to be graduating but just thinking that I could have died the year before.

“But graduating, getting up and saying that speech and sharing my story it was such a powerful turning point for me”.

“I continued to throw myself into the studies, and I’m proud to say I completed my Masters in December in public health, specializing in heart health – directly because of everything I had been through.

“I am so committed to make a positive difference with research, evidence-based recommendations and guidelines; always just having the patient at the centre of the service and the work is something that I feel so strongly about.

“What can I do in the future to improve outcomes for people like me? So that is where I’m trying to put my energy and my focus into now and not dwell on what happened.

“I’m trying to look at it that this was always supposed to be my path, and I’m up for it!”

Caoimhe’s bench is situated in Kilbroney park, Rostrevor.

The Newry woman added: “I’m delighted that my bench has been placed in such a popular setting where many families visit regularly, as it is important to me that the bench is there for the community to use.

“Having a bench in my name means a lot to me as it’s a reminder of how precious life is and how grateful I am for the care I’ve received as well as the importance of the research work that BHF does.”

Newry, Mourne and Down District Council Chairperson, Councillor Philip Campbell, commented:

“Newry Mourne and Down Council are proud to support the installation of this red bench in Kilbroney Park and to help share Caoimhe’s powerful and inspiring story. Kilbroney Park is a special place where many thousands visit each year to socialise and exercise in its natural beauty and it is fitting that this bench will now serve as a lasting reminder of the importance of heart health and the impact of life-saving research.

“Caoimhe’s courage in sharing her experience will help raise heart health awareness and encourage others to seek support when they need it. I hope this initiative will spark important conversations across our communities and highlight the vital work being carried out to improve and save lives.”

To mark 65 years since BHF began, the charity is unveiling 65 red benches across the UK in tribute to those living with cardiovascular disease, including heart attacks.

Behind every bench is a powerful real-life story of someone living with a cardiovascular condition – and thanks to research, they can survive to enjoy life with their loved ones.

Every day in Northern Ireland, around 12 people die from cardiovascular disease, with the condition affecting more than 230,000 people here.

British Heart Foundation hopes that the red benches will encourage others to open up about their experience of living with cardiovascular disease and help raise awareness across the UK.

The charity is also urging people for donations so they can help fund more groundbreaking research to keep Northern Ireland’s hearts beating.

Caoimhe is fitted with a pacemaker – a small device that helps to manage problems with a person’s heart rhythm. With the help of BHF-funded research, these devices have come a long way from the early 1960s, when early versions were bulky and had to be recharged in hospital. Each year around 50,000 people in the UK have a pacemaker fitted.

BHF-funded Professor Aubrey Leatham was a pioneer in this field, implanting the UK’s first internal pacemaker and then developing improved, lower-voltage designs that had better contact with the heart. This work paved the way for the sophisticated, life-changing devices we have today.

Fearghal McKinney, Head of British Heart Foundation Northern Ireland said: “Caoimhe’s story shows the true reality of living with cardiovascular disease, and we are so grateful that she is courageously sharing her experience to help others.

“Despite being one of Northern Ireland’s biggest killers, our new findings show cardiovascular disease is still misunderstood or not taken seriously – and that those living with it face judgement and challenges.

“By sharing the stories of people who live with cardiovascular disease on our iconic red benches across the UK, we hope to start more conversations that change dangerous misconceptions. Research will help us save and improve more lives, but the only way we can fund the scientific breakthroughs of tomorrow is thanks to the public’s generous donations.”

Every three minutes, someone in the UK dies from cardiovascular disease. Donate now to keep Northern Ireland beating – visit bhf.org.uk/keepusbeating