Campaigner welcomes charity's new child heart surgery support role

Mr Shields' work led charity Heartbeat to fund a cardiac youth worker at Southampton General Hospital

A man who had open heart surgery as a child has said he hopes a youth worker he campaigned for will make such experiences "easier for people".

Harry Shields, from Guernsey, had three operations before he turned five and has called for support for young people going through similar situations.

His work led charity Heartbeat to fund a cardiac youth worker at Southampton General Hospital in January.

Charity chief executive Mark Inds said it was "hugely indebted" to Mr Shields.

The new role has been based at the hospital's Heartbeat House and supports both local families and those visiting from further afield, including Guernsey.

The facility has been designed to provide a "home from home" for relatives of those undergoing heart surgery.

'Top of the list'

Mr Shields, who has become an ambassador for Heartbeat in Guernsey, said it was "hard work" to grow up with a "hazy idea" of what the future might hold.

"I've done that work, I've had to, and that's fine... but let's not make it that hard for everyone," he said.

"Let's try and introduce something to make this easier for people."

He added that he hoped he could also be a role model for children growing up with congenital heart diseases.

"It's going to give just a baseline of hope to those kids, to say look, 'this is an adult, he went through what you're going to go through, he knows what you're going to feel like'," he said.

"It gives them some hope that they can come out of this."

Mr Inds said the charity was "hugely indebted" to Mr Shields for his campaigning for more support for children with congenital and cardiovascular diseases.

"It's people like Harry that have pushed it to the top of the list, and quite rightly so," he said.

"We're hugely indebted to him for his passion and his personal suffering as well to get to this point."

The charity's donor development manager Tina Tolley added that the new role was reassuring for people.

"They're going to know there's not just support from the cardiac surgeons [and] cardiologists... there's also going to be psychological support which is going to help them mentally," she said.

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