WHAT I'M CALLED: Jude Stevenson.
MY AGE IN YEARS: 28 – ?! (did I get away with that?).
WHAT I DO: Everything! I’m mum to Erin and Eilish. I’ve been chair of Young Hearts for 18 months and I work full-time as technical quality manager for a high street retailer in their head office. I don’t have time to do anything else.
WHERE I LIVE: In Abingdon, with my girls, my cats and my chickens.
WHO I LOVE: My beautiful girls (and Val Kilmer).
HAPPIEST YEAR: 1990, when I graduated from university, and the sun shone all summer, and Scotland won the Grand Slam.
DARKEST MOMENT: When Eilish was seven months old, very poorly and rushed to A&E at the John Radcliffe. We were then told she had heart failure, an enlarged liver and she had to be put on a drip. It was very hard to take in that my gorgeous baby girl had heart failure, and no GP or health visitor had spotted it. It took a very long time to get my head around what having dilated cardiomyopathy meant for her, and us as a family. People die of that condition, there is no cure. A change of diet – she was weaned on to chocolate, custard and double cream to give her body energy to keep her alive – no rice cakes or carrot sticks like other young children. Constant medical appointments, fear of every cold and virus, struggling to get her to gain weight – the list was endless. She is now three, and her outlook has dramatically improved, thanks to the cardiology team at Oxford Children’s Hospital.
PROUDEST BOAST: Raising the awareness of the heart unit at the JR, and ultimately what it will mean to our local community if we lose it in its entirety – (and socialising with the Scottish rugby team! ).
WORST WEAKNESS: Thighs (on rugby players, is there a theme developing here?) and my shoe obsession.
LESSONS LEARNED: Always pay attention to your instincts as they are your self-defence mechanism. Ignore them at your peril.
DULLEST JOB: A Saturday job in Littlewoods on the cold meat counter when I was 16. I think I did a month and then never went back – but it taught me that I wanted to work in retail, just not on the shop floor!
LIFELONG HERO: Neil Wilson and the cardiology team at the Children’s Hospital for all they did for Eilish – and Vivienne Westwood.
lOLDEST FRIEND: Karen Neville. We have been friends since I moved to England, 20 years ago. We met when we worked (or should I say chatted) behind the bar at the Old Anchor together.
FAVOURITE DREAM: To live in New Zealand – as it’s like Scotland but warmer – and for Eilish to live a long and healthier life.
BIGGEST REGRET: Leaving behind my friends and family in Scotland.
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