There is a very personal motivation behind Joel Savage’s mission to fundraise for heart disease – doctors discovered a hole in his heart at 19 years of age.
Unaware he had a hole in his heart, Joel said there were times throughout his life where questionable things would happen, but he didn’t think twice about it and it wasn’t further investigated.
“I grew up playing lots of sports and was very active outdoors. Occasionally I would feel dizzy or faint but never really thought much of it,” Joel said.
“I distinctly remember as a young teenager after a hard gym session on deadlifts and passing out, but I thought I had just pushed myself a bit too much.
“After a checkup with my GP, nothing was found, and I continued on as normal.”
Years passed for Joel, but questions were raised when he was going through medical testing to join the Army.
“In my second round of testing a slight murmur was picked up. I didn’t think much of it but still went to the cardiologist to double check,” Joel explained.
“A few appointments and an echocardiogram later, I had been diagnosed with a 3.2cm hole in the heart.”
A complete shock to Joel, the hole was located in the atrium of his heart which had been contaminating his oxygen blood supply with deoxygenated blood, causing moments of stress around oxygen supply, which explained him feeling
faint and dizzy.
“When you are born with something a certain way you don’t really know any different and amazingly my body adapted to the hole in my heart and one side had grown three times the intended size,” Joel explained.
“Amazingly, I was able to have a device planted to plug the hole and it’s through amazing research that’s possible through Australian Heart Research that these improvements and treatments are available.”
Wanting to give back and bring people together, Joel recently organised an adventure trek in Murray Bridge with a mission to spread awareness and raise funds while having fun – and he did just that, raising over $600 for AHR!
“Looking back on my health journey there were signs that something wasn’t right and I’m lucky I went on for so long without a serious issue,” Joel said.
“I’ve always got that lesson with me and now I want to help others along the way to not ignore their little signs so that’s a good way for me to pay it forward.”
Joel’s trek has ignited a fire within him, and he is determined to continue raising funds and awareness for AHR. We look forward to updating you on his fundraising journey!
