Steph's Story

What began as a family day out at the Glenlivet Mountain Bike Trail Centre for Steph soon escalated into a race against time to save her life.

Steph, a schoolteacher from Kemnay in Aberdeenshire, was enjoying the Easter holidays with her family when her condition began to rapidly deteriorate.

“I was trying to keep up with my eldest daughter on the trails when I suddenly felt really ill,” the 51-year-old says.

“My eyesight became blurry, and I knew I was going to pass out.”

She managed to manoeuvre herself off the trail before falling unconscious.

The mother of two regained consciousness shortly before hearing voices crowd around her.

“Thankfully I was close to a road at the edge of the forest,” recalls Steph. “A member of staff from the centre arrived on a quadbike and I believe he called 999.

“That’s roughly when the pain in my chest started. It then radiated down to my elbows, and I couldn’t feel my hands or open my eyes … it was unbearable.

“I couldn’t move, my arms and legs felt so heavy, and I knew it wasn’t going to be possible for me to get myself up.”

A land ambulance arrived at the scene. An ECG test concluded that there was an issue with Steph’s heart.

She was then transported to rendezvous with another land ambulance where paramedics were able to supply pain relief.

Steph required urgent medical attention. The travel by road would clock in at over 1.5hours.

Despite being in ‘unbearable’ pain, and unable to open her eyes, Steph remembers hearing the thud of helicopter rotor blades approach.

Unaware of the severity of her situation, Steph was told by SCAA paramedics that she was having a heart attack.

“It was too big to comprehend…I was in total shock,” she reflects.

Steph was packaged carefully into the helicopter and transferred to Aberdeen Royal Infirmary in just 15 minutes. A journey that may have saved her life.

“The SCAA paramedics had warned me that when we arrived at ARI lots of people would swarm me,” she comments. “When we landed, I got wheeled quickly into surgery in a big hurry.

“I had a stent fitted to fix a block in my right coronary artery. The whole operation was complete in 45 minutes, and I was allowed to go home after three days.

“I heard from the cardiologist the following day that I had had a lucky escape, but I eventually found out just how close I had been to dying.”

Since her heart attack, Steph has become an ardent supporter of SCAA. She is now a SCAA volunteer, regular giver, lottery player, and recently shared her emotional story at the charity’s Operation Skyward launch event held at our Aberdeen base. Here she was able to reunite with the crew and aircraft that played a vital role in getting her the medical care needed to save her in time.

She says: “It’s important for me that others get the same opportunity I did – for SCAA to reach more people in time.

“I didn’t expect to nearly die on a hillside in Glenlivet at the age of 51, that wasn’t part of my plan. My life was hanging in the balance.

“Thank you is not enough but that’s all I can say. It’s a debt I can never repay.”