Alan became unexpectedly very poorly back in May this year when his mitral valve in his heart ruptured. He was initially taken to Stoke Mandeville Hospital, but he became increasingly worse and needed specialist care that only the Royal Brompton Hospital was able to offer. Alan was critically ill and there were moments we really did not know if he would pull through. However, due to the AMAZING team and care he received at the Brompton Alan managed to get himself through the procedures.

We thank the cardiologists, surgeons, consultants and nurses from the bottom of our hearts. We thank the Adult Intensive Care Unit for everything they did for Alan. We thank the High Dependency Unit for rehabilitating him. We also want to extend our thanks to the York Ward for building up his strength so that on Tuesday 8th June he was able to come home to us.

The team at Brompton were hopeful, as were we, that Alan would build up his strength even further so that he could eventually have surgery to replace his mitral valve. However, Alan sadly passed away peacefully in his sleep on Sunday 4th July.

We are beyond devastated but we will be forever grateful to the Brompton Hospital for giving us four more weeks with Alan at home. This allowed us to spend quality time with him and we were able to show and tell him how much he was loved by us all.

I cannot express in words how well Alan was looked after and how supportive the staff were to us as a family especially during the pandemic when we were not allowed usual visiting. The fantastic nurses video-called with us so that we could be with Alan virtually. They treated Alan and us with compassion, empathy and respect.

The Brompton Hospital is an incredibly special place full of incredibly special people!

All monies raised will go towards the Adult Intensive Care Unit, High Dependency Unit and York Ward to continue their wonderful work.

Thank you from the Garside family. x

Libby Garside