We are looking into arranging a session of basic life support (resuscitation) training, which can be life saving in the event of a cardiac arrest.

This would be open to our group members and their partners/relative/informal carers who may find it reassuring to have these skills.

We’d like to get an idea of numbers we’d be catering for, so if you and your partner/relative/carer would be interested in attending, please register your interest by emailing us at cambridgeheartbeats@gmail.com.

Our next meeting is booked for 2pm in the small hall at Arbury Community Centre.

There will be a talk about the different cardiac conditions which are treated with cardiac device such as a pacemaker or ICD, to help us understand the similarities and differences between the devices and with eachother’s experiences.

As usual there will be an opportunity for question and answers, and chat with group members over a tea or coffee. New and old group members and partners, friends and family all welcome.

We’ve been made aware of the below free course for people with a heart condition. This is not provided by Cambridge Heartbeats, but may be of interest to our members. Please contact the heart coach directly for more information.

The British Heart Foundation have some useful resources about coming to terms with a change in your health, which can be particularly hard if you have to stop doing something you enjoy.

However, life with a cardiac device is not the end of your life as you know it!

You can read more on the BHF website. And joining a support group might help, so please get on our mailing list for updates on our meetings, where new members are always welcome.

We enjoyed an excellent talk by Alan Darby, lead for cardiac rehabilitation at CUH, about exercising with a cardiac condition. Did you know one 40 minute walk reduces inflammation known to increase risk of a cardiovascular event 24 hours after the walk?

Hopefully everyone was inspired keep active and he gave lots of tips of how to monitor your activity and increase this safely. The slides from the session will be emailed to current members. If you are interested in this but not yet a member, please get in touch!

Happy New Year to all our members!

We’re delighted that we will be joined by Alan Darby from the Cardiac Rehabilitation service at our next meeting on Wednesday 11th January. If you’d like to find about more about staying active while living with a cardiac device, please come along!

The meeting will be held at 2pm in the small hall at Arbury Community Centre with the usual supply of tea, coffee and cake.

A very informative session was provided by Kathryn Carver, Lead Heart Function Nurse at CUH, followed by lots of useful questions (and answers!). Kathryn provided advice about living with reduced heart function, what different medications do to help, and told us how cardiac rehabilitation is a great way to increase activity and improve symptoms.

Following on from that, we’re delighted that we will be joined by Alan Darby from the Cardiac Rehabilitation service at our next meeting in January. If you’d like to find about more about staying active while living with a cardiac device, please come along!

Our next meeting is scheduled for 2pm on 23rd November, to be held in the small hall at Arbury Community Centre.

We will be joined by Addenbrooke’s lead heart function nurse, Kathryn Carver, who will provide a talk about living with heart failure. Kathryn is a fantastic and very experienced nurse who will be able to answer many of your questions so please come and join us for an interesting and useful session.

Our next meeting is planned for 14th September at 2pm at Arbury Community Centre and we’re looking forward to seeing you there.

If you have any questions or issues with your ICD that you’d like to know more about, please drop us an email at cambridgeheartbeats@gmail.com so we can come prepared!

Buddies are also available if you’d like to talk someone about your ICD in between the group meetings. If you’d find this helpful please email and we’ll put you in touch with one of our buddies.

We had a very interesting session at our last meeting, with a presentation from the East of England Innovation Hub. They are collecting patient feedback regarding what types of currently available innovations would make the biggest impact on improving patient’s lives and addressing health inequalities for those with cardiovascular disease. We wait to see what comes out of it! You can find out more about it on their website.

The next meeting will be held on 14th September, as usual at 2pm at Arbury Community Centre. Please mark this in your calendar as we love to see so many of you attending!