11/01/2026
Husfjellet, .
Can you spot me?
This place will always be memorable. Not only because of its incredible beauty, but because it’s the day I found out I have a heart problem.
This is a short hike, quite steep, but considered fairly easy for the average walker/hiker. I really struggled. I felt light-headed, dizzy, and kept needing to sit down. I ignored my body telling me to stop and battled through, putting it down to being out of shape and getting mad at myself. It genuinely felt like I was climbing the biggest mountain in the world.
I somehow dragged myself to the viewpoint and still managed to enjoy the scenery. My heart rate had gone up to nearly 200 bpm and didn’t come back down. Twelve hours later it was still high, so my friends called an ambulance.
The Norwegian emergency services were incredible. To cut a very long story short, I ended up in Tromsø hospital with a suspected heart attack. After many tests, they decided it wasn’t a heart attack but an episode of atrial fibrillation. The doctors told me I could have given myself a heart attack by carrying on and not listening to the signals my body was giving me. My strong head nearly got me into serious trouble.
I was released the following morning in time to catch my flight home and went straight to hospital in Cambridge. I’m still under investigation, but so far they’ve found a mild prolapse in one of my heart valves.
If I hadn’t taken this hike, I might never have realised and it could have been far worse, or happened somewhere with poor healthcare. I’m incredibly grateful it happened where it did, and that I was with my good friends.
If you’re still here, that’s the other reason this place will always have a special place in my heart (excuse the pun 🤣).
But seriously, as we get older (and wider, in my case 😜), please listen to your body and stay in tune with it.
I wish you all a healthy and happy 2026 ❤️
Huge thanks to !
