Heart transplant patient shares inspiring story with Doncaster Rovers fans

Clare Bailey led out the teams to mark International Women's Day after bouncing back from a heart transplant

Transcript

00:00 Claire has been an employee for the club for quite a number of years and quite regularly

00:07 attended Fitrovers more or less every week. To hear what had happened to her, quite a

00:11 shock to everyone really. In July 2023 I was getting a bit out of breath when I did things

00:18 which I thought was pretty abnormal for me. I'd spoken to my mum and she said you should

00:23 go to the doctors, so I did. When I was going to Douglas Stour Royal Infirmary, I was going

00:27 for an x-ray. I ended up having a cardiac arrest. Turns out I needed to get a new heart.

00:34 I saw that she was doing an exercise in hospital which was absolutely insane to say that she'd

00:45 had a heart transplant. She was trying to get on the bike, she was going on walks. I

00:48 just dropped her a message and said look, any support you need, we're here for you.

00:52 And I know that she had to do some rehab with a physio. She kind of asked if we could do

00:55 it at our gym because it's where she works, she knows the staff. So she's been able to

00:59 come here with her physio, do a bit of rehab with them. That's enabled her to kind of build

01:04 her confidence up massively. So she's now attending the gym under no supervision, she's

01:08 doing her own little thing. She's still got a long way to go but who do you know that

01:12 it's like four or five months post heart transplant that is doing what she's doing now.

01:23 Working initially with my physio was great. I needed to get that confidence again and

01:29 then I've got all the staff here that can help me. It's familiar surroundings. I am

01:33 looking forward to getting back to it, getting into routine and then I can get back to Fitrovers

01:37 again. Yeah, I'm in a good place.

01:39 She's going to be returning to work soon. I feel like this has helped her in aid of

01:45 her recovery to get back to work, to get back to herself a little bit.

01:50 She is the definition of an inspirational woman I think. She's amazing, she's kind,

01:54 she's caring, she always puts herself out of her comfort zone to see her doing what

01:59 she's doing now. She's amazing and we love her to bits.

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