Eileen's story: peace of mind
Read Eileen from Airdrie's transcript, talking about her Keep Well health check.
How did you find out that you could get a Keep Well health check?
I found out about the Keep Well project initially because a letter dropped through the letterbox saying that I was of a specific age and inviting me to come along.
What I felt when I got the letter inviting me was - in my family, on my father’s side there is a history of heart disease. So in the family side of things when people get to on or around their 55th birthday that’s when the heart disease seems to kick in - and they seem to, most of them seem to have died before the age of 55. And I vividly remember my father from 54 ‘til he passed his birthday at 55 worrying about the fact that he probably wouldn’t live beyond then.
Why did you go for your health check?
So I didn’t want to be like that, and I thought - well if this test shows me that there’s a hereditary problem, which is one of the things the girl had explained, you know the cholesterol checks.
If I needed to have a second cholesterol check it would show was it hereditary or was it something you needed medication for. Then obviously I could get something to deal with that, so that I wouldn’t be in that position. So I went from being ‘I don’t really know if it is going to be up to much’ to thinking ‘it is going to be of use to me’.
How do you feel about the health check?
My experience of the Keep Well health check I feel was very, very positive. I felt very comfortable from the minute I got there ‘til I left. I didn’t feel that the nurse I was speaking to was watching a time thinking that there’s somebody coming. I mean I could have sat there and spoke to her for a couple of minutes if I’d wanted, or 5 or 10 minutes - which in fact I did.
What happened when you went for your healthcheck?
We spoke about not just the Keep Well but we spoke about other issues, like you know, the dieting and what have you - and I got a bit of advice from her.
I changed in terms of what I was doing with my diet, I changed. I changed that to reflect the things we had talked about that were good and bad, like your fish - try to have fish in your diet, try to have veg, fruit. Which was one of the things I mean - I just see fruit as an apple or an orange or something but she did explain to be that there is tinned fruit, because I am not a fruit person.
And tinned fruit and frozen peas and what have you are still one of your one-a-days - so that basically I thought ‘well I could do this five a day thing quite easily’.
What would you say to someone thinking about going for a health check?
I think if there is someone out there that’s undecided I would say it’s very simple. It took a couple of minutes, it’s not painful and if like me you go and you get something out of it, which I think that most people, even if it is something like my reading’s normal or there’s something you need to do to change - I mean if there’s a risk of heart disease at all and there is something you can do to change it what’s 5 minutes out of your life?
