A man is preparing to cycle 130 miles from the tip of Wales to his hometown in Carmarthenshire just months after he couldn’t cycle down his own road because an undiagnosed condition meant he actually needed heart surgery. Rhys James, a guitar teacher from Carmarthen, was out riding his bike last summer when he suddenly felt that he couldn’t carry on.
He had to stop on his journey as his heart was beating too fast. He was having serious palpitations and in the weeks that followed he continued to struggle as his heartbeat was speeding up without reason several times a day.
Rhys had never suffered from any heart problems in the past and decided he had to be seen by a doctor promptly to get to the bottom of what was happening to him. “I’m quite fit and I haven’t had problems with my heart before so I had to see a specialist fairly quickly and then receive drugs to calm the heart,” said Rhys. “I was given the choice whether to continue on strong pills for the rest of my life or have surgery.”
