Heart patient overcomes obstacles

Tom Hamilton-Brown, left, and his brother David

The 24-year-old apprentice was born with Tetralogy of Fallot, a congenital heart defect, in 1991.

He underwent open heart surgery at the Royal Brompton Hospital in London just before his second birthday in March 1993. Three weeks later, he took part in a sponsored doggy paddle at Worthing Aquarena with his older brother, David, to raise funds for the British Heart Foundation.

Proud parents Julie and Jim Hamilton-Brown, of Henty Road, Worthing, said: “Tom had open heart surgery at the Royal Brompton Hospital in February to replace the pulmonary valve and to fully close the hole between the left and right ventricles.

“He has made a complete recovery and is now trying to raise funds, again with his brother David, for the Royal Brompton and Harefield Hospitals Charity by taking part in the Hastings Spartan Race on Saturday. The Spartan Race is a 5k race with 15 obstacles and these take place the world over.”

Tom is a second-year woodworking apprentice at Rolls Royce in Goodwood and David, 26, is an accountant with a Worthing company.

Tom said: “I had major heart surgery as a baby, which wasn’t a 100 per cent fix but it saved my life. Twenty three years on, I had another open heart surgery to replace a pulmonary valve and repair a hole in the wall between the two bottom chambers.

“Since the surgery, my health has massively improved way beyond what I or even the doctors had expected.

“We want to raise money for the charity of the hospital to say a massive thank you for my new lease of life and to help towards research and development of the hospital so that children born with similar problems to mine, could also be saved.”

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