‘My sore throat turned into heart failure’: avid runner thanks hospital who saved him

Alan Day was an avid runner and outwardly seemed fit and healthy when he developed the throat infection four years ago aged just 30.

This rapidly led to heart failure and left Alan needing life-saving treatment to help his heart pump blood around his body. He only ended up in hospital by chance, after he lost consciousness and hit his head. He says he feels lucky he was admitted when he was, otherwise his heart failure may have gone unnoticed until it was too late.

Now at the age of 34, Alan is thanking the medical teams at both Manchester Royal Infirmary and Wythenshawe Hospital whose quick thinking saved his life, by fundraising for the hospitals’ charity Manchester Foundation Trust Charity.

He has decided to share his story for the first time and fundraise for Manchester Foundation Trust Charity as part of the organisation’s new Be A Good Sport campaign which encourages supporters to sign up to sporting challenges to raise funds for their favourite Manchester hospitals.

In total Alan was in hospital for two-and-a-half weeks, however he remained as an outpatient to attend regular check-ups and follow-up appointments. Eventually he was signed off from the hospital’s care in September 2020.

Since then, Alan has been determined to get back his running stamina which is why he wanted to be part of Be A Good Sport and raise money for Manchester Foundation Trust Charity.

He built up his running again doing park runs and regular running around the local area. His Virtual London Marathon will still take place on the same date as the London Marathon – Sunday 3 October – but his route will take him from Manchester to his parents’ house near Halifax, West Yorkshire.