Heart attack prompted Rugby man to take action on his health and lifestyle

A mild heart attack prompted a retired Rugby businessman to take a good look at his lifestyle and change his ways.

Richard Green, 63, is now helping other people make positive changes to improve their lives

He had his heart attack in 2015 and at the time he weighed 14 stone.

After his health scare, Richard gave up smoking and changed his diet.

He continued to put on weight was later diagnosed Type 2 diabetes.

Richard went from taking one cod liver oil tablet a day to 15 tablets a day, with his weight eventually reaching close to 19 stone.

He was referred for additional tests and came to work with Dr Petra Hanson, National Institute for Health Research Clinical Lecturer in Diabetes and Endocrinology, who at the time was conducting a study on a drug for diabetes management.

As part of this study Richard spent 24 hours being monitored to see how his body worked whilst at rest. During this time Petra and Richard discussed the NHS Tier 3 Weight Management Services pathway he was on and how the whole experience could be made better for patients.

Together they decided that there should be simpler, more effective resources available where the patient felt fully supported by professionals at all times.

Petra led three focus groups with patients attending specialist weight management services to understand better what was needed. Clinicians from the specialist weight management team from University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire, patients and DDM Health (creators of NHS-trusted digital platforms), created W8Buddy, a bespoke version of Gro Health app.

W8Buddy allows individual patients to be directly plugged into their NHS specialists, streamlining all their needs and resources in one digital place, with a team of experts at hand.

Richard said: "My background in IT and business and the fact that I am a type two diabetic patient who’d struggled with my weight hopefully helped the team understand what it was like to have tried lots of weight loss programmes and failed.

"W8Buddy is a game changer; it speeds up every element of the pathway meaning countless more patients can be helped.”

Richard now weighs just under 16 stone and is much happier and healthier.

For more information, visit https://ddm.health/ or https://www.grohealth.com/clinicians