Less than two weeks after his 52nd birthday, a Gauteng businessman will give South African television viewers a rather unconventional gift of his own: the opportunity to learn some very important lessons from his own difficult journey of cardiovascular disease.
The father of two and grandfather, known as Wally and married to Sarie, has agreed to go under the knife on live television on Saturday, 2 August 2008 as part of the Heart and Stroke Foundation of South Africa's heart health television education initiative, Meet Wally's Heart.
Doctors will perform single bypass open heart surgery on him to rectify narrowed arteries that could put him at risk of having a massive heart attack at any given moment.
The live special transmission of SABC 3's 3 Talk with Noeleen Maholwana-Sangqu will be a first for South African television and a chilling reminder of the need for us all to live a healthy and balanced lifestyle in order to combat rising incidences of heart attacks, strokes and blood vessel disease, which currently claim 195 lives per day in South Africa.
In 2000 Wally had the first warning bells of heart disease and was put on medication to control his elevated cholesterol and blood pressure. At the time he had a stent inserted to offer him an improved quality of life.
A Type II diabetes diagnosis followed in 2004 after Wally survived the traumatic experience of almost being run over by a large concrete truck which crashed into his home and destroyed part of it. While partly attributed to the shock of this experience, Wally's Type II diabetes is also the result of his very poor dietary choices.
He generally skips breakfast and lunch and admits that his meals only occasionally include the recommended portions of fruit and vegetables. His meals include a lot of red meat, ranging from braais to bangers and mash and curries, as opposed to more balanced meals incorporating fruit and vegetables.
Wally is also heavy smoker who gets through around 25 cigarettes per day. Smoking is known to lead to a build up of fatty deposits in the arteries, making it difficult for blood to be carried from the heart to the rest of the body.
Although he used to drink quite excessively, he says he has cut down on this significantly.
Undoubtedly the stress of being a partner in a motor vehicle maintenance and panelbeating business may have also had a big role to play in Wally's deteriorating heart health.
Although he enjoys golf, Wally admits his exercise routine is almost non-existent and only plays the sport around three times in two months. His other physical activity is limited to a couple of rounds of tenpin bowling played via his Nintendo Wii gaming console and he admits to being an armchair bound sports fanatic, mostly watching matches from the comfort of his living room.
His message for the public and for CVD patients in particular is simple: “Live a balanced, healthy lifestyle, exercise regularly and follow a healthy diet.
“Bad habits catch up with you later in life, so don't ever think ‘that can never happen to me!'”
View the live, two hour broadcast of Wally's surgery from Netcare Milpark Hospital on SABC 3 on Saturday, 2 August 2008 from 20h00 to 22h00.
Visit our PRESS OFFICE: Established in 1980, the Heart Foundation recently amalgamated with the Stroke Foundation, becoming the Heart and Stroke Foundation South Africa (HSFSA)- more....
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