Marlon | Christchurch, Canterbury

“I actually had two heart attacks. I felt all weak, for this whole week, just in anything I was doing. Just cleaning my house, or just taking rubbish out or just walking down the shops was quite an effort. I was wondering what was going wrong with me, and come Friday, I couldn’t sleep, because I’d lost all my feeling in my left arm.

I was up all night and up all morning, and I just said to my son, I’m going to the hospital, I think I’m having a heart attack. So, I jumped on my bike and biked to the hospital and it was quite an effort, I got to the Square and I could see the museum, and I just said, as long as I get to the museum, at least I can crawl to the hospital. I made it to the museum, and I biked to the hospital, and locked my bike up, walked in and I felt pretty weak. I told them the symptoms and what happened, and whatnot, and they said, oh you’re having a heart attack, come straight through. Within half an hour, they were operating on me, and they had to stick stents in my arteries leading to my heart, and they stuck three in. They were going to stick four in, but they left it out, and that was the one that I ended up going back to the hospital six months later for, because I got another attack. I just said to my son, ‘oh no’. So, his girlfriend ran me to the hospital, and it was another heart attack. That artery that they never stuck the stent in, well they had to put the stent in there, I’m on pills every day for the rest of my life. I look back at my life, and I take it quite seriously now because I was close to death. People would just have the one heart attack and they’re gone. I’ve had two heart attacks, and I’m still here. I don’t know the reason why I’m still here, but they reckon that you’re here for a reason. But that’s been my challenge. I’ve been a builder most of my life, mainly heavy construction, and  I can’t do it now. That’s been the biggest challenge of my life so far, and has made me look at my life a bit differently. I appreciate still being here, because I class myself as quite lucky. 

It wasn’t till my heart attack that I took a bit more of a notice in life, and took life a bit more seriously, because I was pretty easy going – easy come, easy go sort of thing. But having that heart attack sort of changed me.

I’ve got three biological kids, and I’ve got two step-sons. So, I’ve really got four sons and one daughter. My baby, my daughter, she’s 19 and I’ve still got my son, they still live with me, and they have been living with me since Year 12, because they were with their mother but their mother’s gone to Australia now, and I’ve had my kids for the last eight years.

I’m originally from New Plymouth, Taranaki, West Coast of the North Island. I lived there for about eight years. Moved from there to Tūrangi, when my father took up work with the Justice Department as a prison officer. Then we moved from Tūrangi to Wellington, Mt Crawford. Then, I went to college there and then went to Aussie. I was over there for nearly four years, and then I come straight back to Christchurch, because my parents had split up while I was away. Mum came down here because my grandparents are down here. I originally just came back from Australia for a holiday, but a woman got the better of me. I met someone, and had kids, one thing led to another, and 35 years later I’m still here.”