00:00My name's Barry Newman, formerly known as Barry Newman, now I'm stem cell baz.
00:05That'll come later. In 2014, through no fault of my own, I got a virus, got a heart condition,
00:13dilated cardiopathy. After an MRI scan my heart was working at 13% and it was slightly larger than
00:20it's supposed to be. For a guy that doesn't drink, doesn't smoke, likes to keep fit, always strong
00:24as an ox, daft as a brush, it's not looking good at all. For a few years on, the medication
00:29just
00:29weren't working, I couldn't tolerate a lot of tablets, my blood pressure kept falling through the floor.
00:34Initially I'd been told I was looking at a heart transplant and it's like, this can't be true.
00:39Me and my partner sat watching TV, watching The One Show and there's this article about
00:43Heart Cells Foundation that work with Barts Hospital in London and they have this unbelievable treatment
00:51where they take your stem cells, they'll nick them out your bone marrow in your hip, jiggle them,
00:56the jiggling bits the clever bit clearly, going through your wrist, put the stem cells into your heart.
01:01It's an amazing procedure which I am now absolutely committed to help them get it onto the NHS,
01:07which it needs to be there for everyone that needs it. So Heart Cells Foundation have been going now for
01:1220 years, trying to get this fantastic modern day miracle onto the NHS. They're now at the stage where they're
01:20at
01:20phase three, which is they have to go through phase three to prove to the NHS that this is a
01:27viable thing
01:27in every way, shape and form. So there we are now, obviously pushing for awareness, that's what I'm
01:34doing every day is I speak to patients every day that need it. I speak to people about the fundraising,
01:40I speak to people about awareness, but the phase three bit is the critical bit now where
01:44this is the final push to get it exactly where it needs to be for everyone that needs it. It's
01:50available.
01:51In this time from getting diagnosed before the stem cells, my choice of clothing were my pyjamas and
01:58my best friend in my bed. And it's like, wow, how can this go from being that bad to being
02:04this good
02:05with such a simple procedure? My son Robert, obviously being part of the entire journey from day one with
02:11me being ill. Rob's actually taking on the challenge of the London Marathon to raise funds for Heart
02:19Cells Foundation, which is fabulous and fantastic. And a lad called Josh, my lad's called Robert Newman,
02:25Josh's dad, he saw me on TV with another patient that had it done. He had it done last summer
02:30and he's on the mend.
02:31So it's a life-saving, life-changing thing. And it isn't just the patient, it's the families. The families
02:39get their family member back and they stop worrying about the family member that's going to die or they've
02:45got this horrendous thing that's going on that they don't know what's happening. That's gone. No one
02:49worries about Bazdemore because he's nutted a fruitcake and doing all sorts of strange things that he
02:54shouldn't be doing. This is my 60th year in life and it's like, you're not stopping me.
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