WHEN the Newcastle Falcons take to the pitch for a charity supporting game this weekend it won’t just be the young heart patients in Newcastle spurring them on.
That’s because one of their own suffered from a heart defect for 20 years before it was corrected with surgery.
Stewart McCullough, the team’s media manager, was plagued with agonising migraines, numbness and dizzy spells for years before doctors discovered he had a hole in his heart.
Now, five years on from a pioneering operation to mend the condition, Mr McCullough is delighted that the Falcons are using their clash against London Irish on Saturday to support the Children’s Heart Unit Fund (CHUF), based at the Freeman Hospital.
“It’s a very worthwhile charity so we’ll do all we can to help – and we’ll hopefully have as many fans there to help us climb the table,” said Mr McCullough.
The match came about through owner Semore Kundi’s friendship with entrepreneur Graham Wylie, who is on a personal mission to raise cash and awareness for CHUF.
Mr Wylie’s daughter Kiera, now two, was diagnosed with a complex heart problem when she was still in the womb, yet the team at the Freeman has now corrected her condition once and for all.
After organising an annual golfing challenge at his Heddon- on-the-Wall hotel, Close House, and an annual horseracing event at Newcastle Racecourse, Mr Wylie teamed up with Mr Kurdi to get the Newcastle Falcons involved.
The London Irish game will see raffles, bucket collections and a “money can’t buy” auction all take place for CHUF.
It promises to be an especially poignant day for Mr McCullough who was brought up in Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, but now lives on Newcastle’s Quayside.
“I was treated at Blackpool Victoria Hospital because it was close to my university, but had my condition been found as a child I would have probably been treated at the Freeman,” he said.
“I know that the heart unit there is especially close to Mr Wylie and they do amazing work.
“When I was young I was a very keen sportsman and played rugby league, rugby union and football. I tried out for Bolton Wanderers as a kid.
“But when I was around 14 I started to get awful migraines with aura, where you get the flashing lights.
“My left side would go numb, I’d go dizzy, my speech would slur and my vision would go too.
“It was the consultant at the Blackpool hospital who finally diagnosed me in 2007 with a hole in the heart, or a PFO which stands for Patent Foramen Ovale.
“They actually did the operation through my inner thigh. They went into the main artery into the hole and put a tiny piece of mesh over the heart.
“It was amazing. I just had a small bandage over my leg, after having heart surgery – and within weeks I was back out playing sport and I’m fighting fit now.”
