The One Show 'saves' woman viewer with 'incurable' heart condition

Chloe Flevill's "incurable" was saved by none other than , after years of doctors were certain she wouldn't suffer.

Chloe's elder sister Anna was diagnosed with dilated cardiomyopathy at only five months old. This condition is a heart muscle disease where the heart chambers grow larger and lose their ability to contract, leading to congestive heart failure for baby Anna.

The only way for Anna to have survived would have been a however, the baby was simply too ill and therefore died before an could be found, at two years old. Left heartbroken over of their daughter, Anna's parents were comforted by doctors who informed them of how rare the condition was, saying that "lightning doesn’t strike twice". The doctors also encouraged the parents to have another child, promising them that they need not fear the worst. Two years later, Chloe was born.

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All appeared well with Chloe's health and she grew up learning of the grief of the loss of her sister. Chloe's childhood and early adult life passed by without a flag for concern, until she turned 29 years old.

Living in, Chloe, who works as a NHS clinical coding auditor, developed symptoms of heart palpitations and a shortness of breath. She refused to ask for help in the beginning due to pressures on the NHS, saying: "I know how stressed services are and how full to bursting the are. I went to doctor and told myself "oh, lots of people get palpitations", reports.

Just days later, Chloe was confronted by a concerned colleague who urged her to see a GP as she had begun to look "grey". The GP in question then told the 29 year old: "Don’t be alarmed, I’m just phoning an ambulance," before she was immediately rushed to the hospital. Whilst her tests revealed some irregularities with her heart, A&E medics were convinced these patterns were treatable. In response, Chloe’s GP referred her to a cardiologist to test her further.

Surprisingly, Chloe was diagnosed with the same that had caused the death of her sister Anna, all those years ago. Although dilated cardiomyopathy cannot be cured, her doctors reassured her that "we’re not in the 1980s anymore" and informed her that new treatments could regain some of her lost heart function. Genetic understanding and research has also developed since the 80's belief that "lightning doesn’t strike twice" and we now know that such conditions can be inherited.

Opening up about the devastating news she was told after her diagnosis, Chloe said: "I was suddenly told "we know you and your husband are trying for a child, we strongly recommend you stop because your body will not be able to tolerate it". We’d bought a four-bedroom house and planned on filling it with children," shared the heart-broken patient. She added that the part she struggled the most with, however, was breaking the news to her mother.

Having to tell her mother that it was "starting again" left Chloe feeling "so guilty". She began to take prescribed medications, but "nothing made any difference" and her health declined due to her heart loosing more of its function.

Roughly five years post-diagnosis, Chloe attended an annual family camping trip where her symptoms became a lot worse. She described how the trips were normally "amazing," but this time she "didn't want to be on holiday" because of the pain she was in. She explained: "I couldn’t breathe, when I was lying down I felt like I was suffocating". Chloe's lips suddenly turned blue each time she began to move, reported her family and, when she finally made it back to the hospital, she "couldn’t even walk to the department".

She shared how she was "clinging on to the side of a hospital corridor," struggling to breathe; "there I was in my early 30s heaving for breath, and an elderly volunteer had to scoop me up in a wheelchair to take me to my appointment. I just thought "is this my life, is this all I've got now?""

A nurse provided a brutal answer, telling her "yes, you’re on the maximum medical therapy". Chloe was also told she had gone into congestive heart failure, which meant her heart was not pumping regularly enough and its fluid was consuming her lungs. "It’s not the life me and my husband had planned, it’s not the life I wanted," admitted Chloe, who added: "I lost all hope. There was nothing anyone could do, I would just have to wait to be sick enough to go on a heart transplant list".

And then what appeared like a miracle occurred. Chloe described how she was walking past her husband, who never normally watches daytime telly, with The One Show playing a section about heart disease. Chloe recalled thinking that she knew the guy... "But rather than looking poorly like me, he looked completely normal". The man turned out to be someone she had met during her time researching others the same condition. Just as Chloe had been told, he had believed nothing else could be done for him.

Chloe said that on he opened up about having "ground-breaking new stem cell therapy at St Bartholomew’s Hospital in London, funded by a charity called Heart Cells Foundation". She shared how she was left shocked, and "couldn’t believe what [she] was hearing".

Left inspired, she applied for an assessment to see she "would qualify for the experimental therapy on a compassionate basis". The London hospital team created this experimental treatment for end-stage heart disease and is currently being funded for a select few patients on a compassionate basis by the Heart Cells Foundation.

The charity described how its medics extract stem cells from bone marrow found in the hip in a "straightforward outpatient procedure". They then culture the cells in the lab for five days, and inject them directly into the patient’s heart through a vein found by a tiny incision made in their arm. The patient's own stem cells then act accordingly, working to repair the damaged heart.

The Foundation claims around 70 percent of patients have shown significant improvement and may have even been saved from dying because of the procedure. Chloe's own cardio doctors were sceptical of the study as they had not yet heard of it's research. Luckily, however, the St Barts' team "told her that their research suggested the therapy could do some good for someone with her condition," said Chloe.

After receiving the treatment in November 2023, her results appear to have changed her life. Now 36 years old, Chloe admitted that she first noticed a huge difference when on an errand to the post-box. She said: "I forgot to stop at the post-box while driving home. Normally, I would have had to get back in the car, but this time I thought I’d try walking," said a resilient Chloe who determined that "if it took me an hour, it took me an hour. I was there and back in ten minutes!" Immediately calling her mother, she shared how the mother-and-daughter duo "both cried down the phone to each other".

She now reports she is "as well as [she's] ever been". Chloe concluded, saying: "I wouldn’t say I’d got my life back, I’d say I’ve been given a new life by the Heart Cells Foundation. People have asked me what I plan for the future, I didn’t think I had one for an awfully long time".

Professor Anthony Mathur, who heads the St Barts' team and is a trustee of the charity, says that one million patients with heart failure could potentially benefit, and hopes that the treatment be rolled out in the NHS within five to ten years. This would ultimately cost £10,000 - £12,000 during its experimental phase, but is sure to drop as it is offered more out more broadly. Anthony states that this "could save the and wider economy billions".

The Heart Cells Foundation charity is also fundraising, with a goal of £10 million which will go towards a bigger trial - required to prove the treatments reliability in producing positive effects so that it can be adopted by the NHS. Chloe added that she was told it would take a year before she would see the full extent of her improvement, and that her recent results from her one-year check up unveiled how she was "back to within one percent of normal".

"All my symptoms associated with have completely gone. Anna didn’t get the chance to have anything like this – her life was so short and full of suffering. And where would I be if I hadn't seen it on TV? That’s scary," said the 'uncurbable' patient. "I am now the ’s biggest advocate for this treatment and I strongly believe that it should be available as soon as possible on the NHS".

Chloe is