Elinor’s wish for future generations

Published: 13 July 2016

Elinor Collins from Gore recently decided to leave a gift in her will to the Heart Foundation. In her own words, this is why she made that generous decision.  

I was 63, and having had a high cholesterol reading my life underwent some radical changes – as in diet and activity. On a mid-December morning I went for my usual half-hour walk along our very quiet gravel country road. Ten minutes into the walk I had a strange sensation at the base of my throat. I’d forgotten my water bottle and thought a drink would have made it better.

Something in my head seemed to say: ‘Turn around and go home.’ Getting back was a mix of falling, staggering on and sitting down whenever I could. I had no idea what was going on.

At last, home was in sight and by this time I could only crawl until I came to the lawn outside our front fence. Exhausted and with a cramp feeling in the upper front half of my body, I couldn’t go any further.

Eventually, my husband Gordon drove close by in his ute but thought I was sunbathing and kept going. What? On the side of the road? All I could do was flap my hat and yell as loud as I could. When he eventually got to me he had to lift me into the ute. He got quite a shock!

There followed a one-hour drive to hospital by ambulance to be told I’d had a mild heart attack.

Later in the month, an angiogram revealed a 98% blockage in the main artery to my heart and I had to have a stent operation.

I have had two further stents and 12 years of taking many pills.

I am pleased to be alive and grateful to modern technology that enables such a simple procedure to combat such a serious problem.

Heart disease features strongly in both my parents’ families for several generations back, and I feel very blessed to be alive in the angiogram era!

Remembering the Heart Foundation in my will is the least I can do to assure others get the same help I experienced and hopefully even more in the future.

Elinor, from all of us here at the Heart Foundation, thank you for sharing your story and for so generously joining us in the fight against heart disease. Supporters like you make our work possible.

Leaving a gift in your will to the Heart Foundation is a much-needed future contribution to our life-saving work.  If you would like to make a lasting gift for future generations, like Elinor has, download our Bequest Brochure today.

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