DIY SOS star Mark Millar to walk with surgeon who saved his life
Mr Millar said there were a few "red flags" in the run up to his heart attack that he dismissed as "aches and pains.""I was getting indigestion in the middle of the night, and I kept having numbness in my left arm which felt like I had an injection."I was also getting exhausted in the afternoons."When the heart attack happened, it felt "like a ratchet strap" around his chest.Mr Millar's life was saved by his friends and his inflatable swimming buoy.He was told by surgeons at the Bristol Royal Infirmary's Heart Institute that he had cardiovascular disease and needed immediate surgery."It turns out it was hereditary, my dad died from a heart attack. "I could live on triple filtered water and lettuce leaves for the rest of my life and my body would still produce this cholesterol," he told BBC Radio Bristol.
Mr Millar said he had been given a "second chance" by the surgeons who saved his life, and wanted to give something back."A 10k walk for me now is like running a marathon, but I've been given the chance to do this walk and I'm going to do it with my doctor," he said.The Big Bristol Walk leaves from the Amphitheatre at 10:00 BST.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Wales Online
27 minutes ago
- Wales Online
Vet nurse shares worries as 90% of dog owners don't know vital skill
Vet nurse shares worries as 90% of dog owners don't know vital skill The vet urged pet owners to take action as she demonstrated how to use the life-saving skill Pet owners could help save a dog by learning the skill (Image: Getty) A veterinary nurse has warned that most dog owners haven't learned a skill that could save their pet's life. The alert was shared by Jade The Vet Nurse (@ who shares educational videos with her 96,000 TikTok followers. In a recent post, she highlighted a life-saving skill animal lovers should learn, reports the Mirror. She claimed: "90% of dog owners don't know how to give CPR," as per results from a survey by PDSA. Keen to help, she then shared a video demonstrating what to do if you ever need to give a dog CPR. Jade said: "Your dog has collapsed and they're not breathing. Would you know what to do? Around 75 to 90% of pet owners do not know how to give effective CPR to their pets. I'm on a mission as a UK-registered vet nurse to educate pet owners on how to give effective CPR as a method of first aid should the worst happen." The vet nurse explained: "Firstly, we need to establish if CPR is definitely necessary. We need to do an initial triage and remember A, B and C. A is for airway, open up the dog's mouth, pull their tongue right forward get a good look at the back of their throat. Is it clear? Is there anything obstructing their airway? "You need to make sure the airway is clear to give effective CPR. If the airway is blocked or your dog is choking, I have got a separate video on what to do if your dog is choking. Once you know the airway is clear, we move on to B, and B is for breathing. Content cannot be displayed without consent Article continues below "For this, we need to get down to chest height of the dog and watch. Can you see if their chest is rising and falling? If you can't see the chest rising and falling, place their nose to your cheek, can you feel any breath on the side of your cheek? Can you hear that they're breathing?" She added: "If not, check the colour of their gums. Are they turning a shade of blue or purple? If yes, there's already oxygen deprivation, in which case we move on to C, which is for circulation. Can you feel a pulse? Place your hand behind your dog's elbow on their ribs, and can you feel a heartbeat? This can sometimes be a little bit challenging in dogs that are overweight. You can also try and place two fingers on the inside of their upper thigh and try and feel a femoral pulse. If there's no pulse, there's no heartbeat, they're not breathing, they're going a shade of blue or purple, then we need to start CPR." Jade advised: "First things first, if you haven't already, you need to call your vet and alert them of the situation. They will also be able to give you further advice on the phone. You need to make sure that your dog is laying on a flat hard surface, ideally on their right-hand side. If you have got a very large dog who is laying on the left hand side and you are unable to flip them over do not worry, just continue with CPR with them laying on the left, because any CPR is better than none." The expert said the next step includes different advice for different dog breeds. "Now this bit is really important, so pay attention. Where you place your hands for CPR depends on the type of breed and shape your dog is. So for dogs that are round-chested, examples of this are labradors, golden retrievers, spaniels, they have a bit of a dome here on the side, you want to place your hands on the widest part of the rib cage. The vet nurse shared a step-by-step guide (stock photo) (Image: Getty) "If you have got a deep-chested dog like a doberman, an alsatian or a greyhound, who have got particularly deep-keeled chests, then you want to place your hands directly above their heart, which is just behind their elbow, so going behind the elbow. "If you have got a wide-chested dog, such as a French bulldog or an English bulldog, who are pretty much as wide as they are tall, then you want to place these on their backs and you give the compressions directly on top in the middle of their sternum. So for this example, I'm gonna continue as if this is a labrador and if I'm gonna go for the widest part of the rib cage. What we need to do is interlock our fingers. "We're gonna be using the heel of the palm of the hand, so elbows locked straight, shoulders directly above the dog where you're about to give the compressions, and you need to compress the chest to about 1/3 to 1/2 of the depth of their entire chest depth. So we need to do 120 compressions a minute, which works out as two compressions a second, and you can do this to the beat of 'staying alive'. You need to do this 30 times and then stop to give two breaths." Content cannot be displayed without consent Article continues below Explaining how to 'give breaths', Jade went on: "To give the breaths you need to keep the dog's tongue inside their mouth and clamp your fingers around the mouth creating an airlock, place their nose into your mouth and give two breaths after each breath make sure you check the rib cage is rising sufficiently to make sure they are getting the oxygen. Don't stop after you've given the breaths, straight back into compressions. You need to keep cycling between 30 compressions and giving two breaths." Her caption added: "Note if you have a small dog (under 7kg) or a cat, you can use this same technique but just use one hand for compressions instead of two." Jade said she'd hope your vet will be giving you instructions, but that you can continue CPR for up to about 20 minutes, stopping every two minutes to see if there are any signs of life. "If at any point your dog starts showing signs of life and they're trying to recover, stop CPR, get them to the vet as soon as possible," she concluded. "If your dog isn't showing any signs of life yet, continue CPR or keep going as instructed by your veterinarian."
Daily Mirror
an hour ago
- Daily Mirror
Vet nurse warns 90% of dog owners don't know life-saving skill
The expert shared an important safety warning for dog owners in an informative social media post A veterinary nurse has shared important advice for dog owners, as it could save your pet's life. TikTok user and dog owner Jade The Vet Nurse (@ often shares informative videos with her 96,000 followers. In a recent post, she highlighted a life-saving skill animal lovers will want to learn. Jade claimed: "90% of dog owners don't know how to give CPR." Keen to help, she then shared a video demonstrating what to do if you ever need to give a dog CPR. She said: "Your dog has collapsed and they're not breathing. Would you know what to do? Around 75 to 90% of pet owners do not know how to give effective CPR to their pets. I'm on a mission as a UK-registered vet nurse to educate pet owners on how to give effective CPR as a method of first aid should the worst happen." The expert explained: "Firstly, we need to establish if CPR is definitely necessary. We need to do an initial triage and remember A, B and C. A is for airway, open up the dog's mouth, pull their tongue right forward get a good look at the back of their throat. Is it clear? Is there anything obstructing their airway? "You need to make sure the airway is clear to give effective CPR. If the airway is blocked or your dog is choking, I have got a separate video on what to do if your dog is choking. Once you know the airway is clear, we move on to B, and B is for breathing. "For this, we need to get down to chest height of the dog and watch. Can you see if their chest is rising and falling? If you can't see the chest rising and falling, place their nose to your cheek, can you feel any breath on the side of your cheek? Can you hear that they're breathing?" She continued: "If not, check the colour of their gums. Are they turning a shade of blue or purple? If yes, there's already oxygen deprivation, in which case we move on to C, which is for circulation. Can you feel a pulse? Place your hand behind your dog's elbow on their ribs, and can you feel a heartbeat? This can sometimes be a little bit challenging in dogs that are overweight. You can also try and place two fingers on the inside of their upper thigh and try and feel a femoral pulse. If there's no pulse, there's no heartbeat, they're not breathing, they're going a shade of blue or purple, then we need to start CPR." Jade advised: "First things first, if you haven't already, you need to call your vet and alert them of the situation. They will also be able to give you further advice on the phone. You need to make sure that your dog is laying on a flat hard surface, ideally on their right-hand side. If you have got a very large dog who is laying on the left hand side and you are unable to flip them over do not worry, just continue with CPR with them laying on the left, because any CPR is better than none." For the next step, the vet nurse explained you'll need to act differently depending on the breed of dog you're helping. "Now this bit is really important, so pay attention. Where you place your hands for CPR depends on the type of breed and shape your dog is. So for dogs that are round-chested, examples of this are labradors, golden retrievers, spaniels, they have a bit of a dome here on the side, you want to place your hands on the widest part of the rib cage. "If you have got a deep-chested dog like a doberman, an alsatian or a greyhound, who have got particularly deep-keeled chests, then you want to place your hands directly above their heart, which is just behind their elbow, so going behind the elbow. "If you have got a wide-chested dog, such as a French bulldog or an English bulldog, who are pretty much as wide as they are tall, then you want to place these on their backs and you give the compressions directly on top in the middle of their sternum. So for this example, I'm gonna continue as if this is a labrador and if I'm gonna go for the widest part of the rib cage. What we need to do is interlock our fingers. "We're gonna be using the heel of the palm of the hand, so elbows locked straight, shoulders directly above the dog where you're about to give the compressions, and you need to compress the chest to about 1/3 to 1/2 of the depth of their entire chest depth. So we need to do 120 compressions a minute, which works out as two compressions a second, and you can do this to the beat of 'staying alive'. You need to do this 30 times and then stop to give two breaths." Explaining how to 'give breaths', Jade said: "To give the breaths you need to keep the dog's tongue inside their mouth and clamp your fingers around the mouth creating an airlock, place their nose into your mouth and give two breaths after each breath make sure you check the rib cage is rising sufficiently to make sure they are getting the oxygen. Don't stop after you've given the breaths, straight back into compressions. You need to keep cycling between 30 compressions and giving two breaths." The vet nurse said she'd hope your vet will be giving you instructions, but that you can continue CPR for up to about 20 minutes, stopping every two minutes to see if there are any signs of life. "If at any point your dog starts showing signs of life and they're trying to recover, stop CPR, get them to the vet as soon as possible," she concluded. "If your dog isn't showing any signs of life yet, continue CPR or keep going as instructed by your veterinarian."
Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
Do NOT ignore crusty white heels - it could be a fatal infection
A top doctor has warned that crusty heels - often dismissed as nothing more than dry skin - could actually be a sign of a 'highly contagious' fungal infection, athlete's foot. If left untreated, it can become life-threatening. Dr Deborah Lee, a GP at Dr Fox Online Pharmacy, said: 'Many people are unaware they have it. It can easily be dismissed as just a patch of dry skin.' While athlete's foot usually starts between the toes, she explained that it can spread across the soles and heels. 'Typically, it causes redness, scaling and soreness between the fourth and fifth toes.' The affected skin may look 'macerated, boggy, ulcerated and peeling', but Dr Lee added that 'it can also cause redness, dryness and scaling on the edge of the feet'. 'This can develop into painful fissures and rarely, blisters can occur on the soles of the feet,' she said. 'Although it is often itchy and sore, it's perfectly possible to have athlete's foot with no symptoms at all.' Dr Lee stressed it is important to catch the infection early, warning that if it spreads unchecked it can lead to serious complications that, in rare cases, prove fatal. 'If you don't control athlete's foot early on, it can quickly spread. The fungus damages the barrier protective effect of the skin allowing infecting organisms into the skin,' she said. And she continued: 'If left untreated, this can result in secondary bacterial infection, impetigo or cellulitis.' Cellulitis 'can cause sepsis, which is life-threatening'. It can also start to affect the toenails, resulting in 'discoloured crumbling toenails' that can be painful and in serious cases 'severely reduce quality of life,' she warned. If you notice signs, you should go to a doctor right away, who she said can usually diagnose it by looking at it, but scrapings can be tested to confirm it. It is more common in those with weakened immune systems like the elderly, those with diabetes, on cancer treatments, taking immunosuppressants, on steroids, or with an underactive thyroid. It is caused by Trichophyton rubrum, also known as tinea pedis, which is microscopic to the eye but 'looks like worms' under a microscope, she said, but no worms are actually involved. Her warning comes amid soaring temperatures, which she said makes matters worse, as the fungus 'thrives in the heat, especially hot, sweaty shoes and trainers,' but also sandals because their feet 'dry out in the hot sun and lose their protective oils.' And if you're thinking of cooling off in a swimming pool, this is probably the worst place you can be, because, she said: 'It takes just one infected person to spread tinea organisms all over the swimming pool area.' Dr Lee had several helpful tips to lower the risk of developing the painful skin condition during hot weather. She said: 'Wash feet once a day with soap and water and dry them carefully, including between the toes.' Because the troublesome fungus can spread through shared bedding, clothing, and towels, she said it is best to use a separate towel at home or the pool. She also recommends shoes that are 'made of a breathable fabric such as canvas or leather'. This is because 'all synthetics retain heat and encourage the feet to heat to heat up and sweat'. For the same reason, she advised wearing socks with natural fibres such as cotton or wool, as many people may not realise lots of socks can be made from polyester. When attending a public swimming pool or changing rooms, she said: 'Cover feet by wearing flip flops.' To ensure the condition is caught early on, she added: 'Check feet regularly for signs of redness, scaling or blisters.' If signs appear, she urged covering any wounds, seeking pharmacist treatment immediately, and monitoring healing.
