\n Hirst, the first professional rugby league player to come out as gay, was diagnosed with dilated cardiomyopathy and heart failure in November 2024.\n<\/p>\n
\n Tests showed his heart\u2019s ejection fraction had fallen to around 20 per cent, which has now increased to 45 per cent since treatment.\n<\/p>\n
\n But a healthy heart would normally have an ejection fraction of around 60 to 80 per cent.\n<\/p>\n
\n Before the diagnosis, Hirst ignored breathlessness, fatigue and difficulty climbing stairs.\n<\/p>\n
\n He believed he had \u201cgone soft\u201d in retirement and did not think his heart was seriously affected.\n<\/p>\n
\n Speaking on the latest Bedside Manners podcast with GP and broadcaster Dr Oscar Duke, Hirst said: \u201cRugby players spend all their time pretending not to be injured.\n<\/p>\n
\n “That mentality is so deeply embedded that I ignored breathlessness, fatigue, even struggling to get up the stairs.\n<\/p>\n
\n “I kept telling myself I\u2019d just \u2018gone soft\u2019 in retirement, that I wasn\u2019t as mentally tough as I used to be.\n<\/p>\n
\n “It never crossed my mind that something was seriously wrong with my heart.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n After diagnosis, he began preparing for the possibility that he might not survive.\n<\/p>\n
\n Hirst said: \u201cI sorted out my will, made sure the kids were sorted, and tried not to think about what the rest of my life might look like.\n<\/p>\n
\n “I didn\u2019t let myself feel anything, I just focused on logistics. It was my way of coping with the idea that I might not be around much longer.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n Hirst ran the 2026 London Marathon for the British Heart Foundation to help highlight cardiovascular disease, especially among younger men.\n<\/p>\n
\n On the podcast, Hirst discusses what it is like to live with heart failure, while Dr Duke and consultant cardiologist Professor Gerry Carr White explain more about cardiomyopathy, diagnosis and treatment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hirst, the first professional rugby league player to come out as gay, was diagnosed with dilated cardiomyopathy and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":797476,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[59,90,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-797475","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-gb","tag-science","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/797475","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=797475"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/797475\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/797476"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=797475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=797475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=797475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}