{"id":540969,"date":"2026-04-20T12:01:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-20T12:01:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/540969\/"},"modified":"2026-04-20T12:01:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T12:01:13","slug":"i-collapsed-into-my-cream-tea-on-a-bike-ride-turns-out-i-had-a-serious-undiagnosed-health-condition-for-50-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/540969\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018I collapsed into my cream tea on a bike ride. Turns out I had a serious, undiagnosed health condition for 50 years\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

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An Essex woman, who unknowingly lived with a significant heart defect<\/a> for over five decades, is now embarking on a challenging 54-mile charity cycle from London to Brighton. <\/p>\n

This life-altering discovery, made after a dramatic collapse during a leisurely bike ride, has prompted her to undertake the endurance cycle for the British Heart Foundation.<\/p>\n

Diana Warren, 55, was enjoying a bike ride with her wife, Lisa, in June 2022 when she suddenly collapsed. <\/p>\n

The couple had paused their 14-mile journey to Mersey Island at a local cafe, where Ms Warren, then 51, had chosen a coffee and a cream tea “for carbohydrates” to sustain them for the remainder of their trip.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d put the cream on the scone ready to go for it, and I don\u2019t remember much after that,\u201d Ms Warren, who lives in Colchester, told PA Real Life.<\/p>\n

\u201cApparently, I went face down into it, waste of a scone!\u201d she laughed.<\/p>\n

\"DianaDiana Warren said learning of her condition was a \u2018shock\u2019 (PA)<\/p>\n

\u201cI came to (as) somebody (was) putting a cold cloth on the back of my neck, and they were phoning for an ambulance\u2026 and spent a couple of hours fully trying to come back to normal.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe all put it down as me just having a faint, although it\u2019s quite unusual to faint whilst you\u2019re sitting down, which was a concern when I went to see the doctors about a week later.\u201d<\/p>\n

For a week afterwards, Ms Warren said that her wife \u201cnagged\u201d her to go and see a doctor, with the keen cyclist simply putting her fainting episode down to a side effect of menopause.<\/p>\n

However, she eventually booked an appointment, still believing it could not be anything serious.<\/p>\n

At her initial appointment, her GP told her he believed it could be to do with her heart, and promptly referred her to Colchester Hospital\u2019s cardiology department.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a bit of a shock, because I was just like: \u2018How can it be anything to do with my heart when I\u2019ve been pretty active?\u2019\u201d Ms Warren said.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know, I\u2019m not a gym bunny, I don\u2019t go to the gym every day, but we walk most places. We cycle when the weather\u2019s good, or when the weather\u2019s not so good and you just need the fresh air. We\u2019re not lazy people.\u201d<\/p>\n

After further tests, including an electrocardiogram, Ms Warren was told that she had an Atrial Septal Defect \u2013 a hole in her heart.<\/p>\n

\"MsMs Warren, left, is doing the London to Brighton cycle for BHF as she feels it’s important \u201cto give back, however you can\u201d (PA)<\/p>\n

\u201cThey said it\u2019s been there your whole life, and it\u2019s surprising it\u2019s not been alerted or discovered before,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut then, I\u2019ve never really been in hospital to have any tests or anything done on it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ms Warren was told that the hole was \u201cthe size of a two pence piece \u2013 which is quite big, apparently\u201d.<\/p>\n

According to the NHS, an Atrial Septal Defect (ASD) is a hole between the two collecting chambers of the heart, the atria, which allows blood to cross from the left chamber to the right, leading to extra blood flow through the lung arteries and lungs. Symptoms include shortness of breath, tiredness, irregular heart beats, fainting and lung infections.<\/p>\n

They are usually treated with a device \u2013 a plug \u2013 made from metal mesh.<\/p>\n

If left untreated, ASDs can lead to pulmonary hypertension, heart failure, stroke and other heart and lung problems, according to the BHF.<\/p>\n

Ms Warren was referred to St Bartholomew\u2019s Hospital in London for treatment, and surgeons attempted keyhole surgery \u2013 entering through her groin \u2013 to patch the hole, but none of the three surgery attempts were successful.<\/p>\n

Instead, Ms Warren required open heart surgery, which took place in April 2024 after a six-month wait.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have to say, St Bart\u2019s were absolutely amazing the whole way through it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\"MsMs Warren on a bike with Lisa, her brother Gary and sister-in-law Teresa (PA)<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were very approachable, they gave you phone numbers if you wanted to speak to anybody before or after. They looked after my wife when I was in hospital. The surgeon was absolutely amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ms Warren also had a pacemaker fitted during the surgery, and now has annual check-ups but is able to live a normal life.<\/p>\n

This year, she is preparing for a mammoth 54-mile bike ride, having got back in the saddle as soon as she could after her major operation.<\/p>\n

Along with her brother Gary and his wife Teresa, Ms Warren will ride from London to Brighton for the British Heart Foundation on Sunday June 21, a route that goes from Clapham Common to Brighton Seafront, and one she has always dreamed of completing.<\/p>\n

She began training in January, gradually increasing her maximum mileage by 10 miles each month, and doing exercises recommended by the British Heart Foundation to get stronger for cycling.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy squats are coming up really good!\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Ms Warren said it feels it is important to fundraise for the British Heart Foundation as someone with lived experience of a heart condition in order to thank them for their work, adding that the \u201csupport they give all of the different heart conditions that people have is amazing\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo give back, however you can \u2013 those of us who have had a heart condition and are well enough to be able to do something to give back \u2013 I think is important, to help others who will, sadly, maybe get into the position where we are, where you don\u2019t know where to turn, you don\u2019t know who to speak to, you don\u2019t know what to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

British Heart Foundation\u2019s London to Brighton Bike Ride 2026 takes place on Sunday June 21.<\/p>\n

To find out more and sign up, visit www.bhf.org.uk\/l2b.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":540970,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[59,102,9778,2207,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-540969","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-gb","9":"tag-health","10":"tag-heart","11":"tag-people","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom","14":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/540969","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=540969"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/540969\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/540970"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=540969"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=540969"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=540969"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}