‘I collapsed face down into a cream tea on a bike ride – it turned out I’d had a hole in my heart for over 50 years’

A woman from Essex who discovered she had had a hole in her heart “the size of a two pence piece” for more than 50 years after collapsing into a cream tea during a bike ride has pledged to ride from London to Brighton, a 54-mile endurance cycle, to raise money for the British Heart Foundation.

Diana Warren, now 55, was out on a bike ride with her wife Lisa in June 2022 when she collapsed, seemingly out of nowhere.

Midway through their 14-mile round trip to Mersey Island, Diana, then 51, and Lisa stopped for a drink at a local cafe, with Diana opting for a coffee and a cream tea “for carbohydrates” to fuel the rest of their ride.

“I’d put the cream on the scone ready to go for it, and I don’t remember much after that,” Diana, who lives in Colchester, told PA Real Life.

“Apparently, I went face down into it, waste of a scone!” she laughed.

“I came to (as) somebody (was) putting a cold cloth on the back of my neck, and they were phoning for an ambulance… and spent a couple of hours fully trying to come back to normal.

“We all put it down as me just having a faint, although it’s quite unusual to faint whilst you’re sitting down, which was a concern when I went to see the doctors about a week later.”

For a week afterwards, Diana said that her wife “nagged” her to go and see a doctor, with Diana simply putting her fainting episode down to a side effect of menopause.

However, she eventually booked an appointment, still believing it could not be anything serious.

At her initial appointment, her GP told her he believed it could be to do with her heart, and promptly referred her to Colchester Hospital’s cardiology department.

“It was a bit of a shock, because I was just like: ‘How can it be anything to do with my heart when I’ve been pretty active?’” Diana said.

“You know, I’m not a gym bunny, I don’t go to the gym every day, but we walk most places. We cycle when the weather’s good, or when the weather’s not so good and you just need the fresh air. We’re not lazy people.”

After further tests, including an electrocardiogram, Diana was told that she had an Atrial Septal Defect – a hole in her heart.

“They said it’s been there your whole life, and it’s surprising it’s not been alerted or discovered before,” she said.

“But then, I’ve never really been in hospital to have any tests or anything done on it.”

Diana was told that the hole was “the size of a two pence piece – which is quite big, apparently”.

According to the NHS, an Atrial Septal Defect (ASD) is a hole between the two collecting chambers of the heart, the atria, which allows blood to cross from the left chamber to the right, leading to extra blood flow through the lung arteries and lungs. Symptoms include shortness of breath, tiredness, irregular heart beats, fainting and lung infections.

They are usually treated with a device – a plug – made from metal mesh.

If left untreated, ASDs can lead to pulmonary hypertension, heart failure, stroke and other heart and lung problems, according to the BHF.

Diana was referred to St Bartholomew’s Hospital in London for treatment, and surgeons attempted keyhole surgery – entering through her groin – to patch the hole, but none of the three surgery attempts were successful.

Instead, Diana required open heart surgery, which took place in April 2024 after a six-month wait.

“I have to say, St Bart’s were absolutely amazing the whole way through it,” Diana said.

“They were very approachable, they gave you phone numbers if you wanted to speak to anybody before or after. They looked after my wife when I was in hospital. The surgeon was absolutely amazing.”

Diana also had a pacemaker fitted during the surgery, and now has annual check-ups but is able to live a normal life.

This year, she is preparing for a mammoth 54-mile bike ride, having got back in the saddle as soon as she could after her major operation.

Along with her brother Gary and his wife Teresa, Diana will ride from London to Brighton for the British Heart Foundation on Sunday June 21, a route that goes from Clapham Common to Brighton Seafront, and one she has always dreamed of completing.

She began training in January, gradually increasing her maximum mileage by 10 miles each month, and doing exercises recommended by the British Heart Foundation to get stronger for cycling.

“My squats are coming up really good!” she said.

Diana feels it is important to fundraise for the British Heart Foundation as someone with lived experience of a heart condition in order to thank them for their work, adding that the “support they give all of the different heart conditions that people have is amazing”.

“To give back, however you can – those of us who have had a heart condition and are well enough to be able to do something to give back – I think is important, to help others who will, sadly, maybe get into the position where we are, where you don’t know where to turn, you don’t know who to speak to, you don’t know what to do.”

British Heart Foundation’s London to Brighton Bike Ride 2026 takes place on Sunday June 21.

To find out more and sign up, visit www.bhf.org.uk/l2b.