Keswick’s Neil Pritt celebrated his 71st birthday with a cup of Earl Grey tea and reflect on a landmark birthday that he thought he’d never see.
It marks 27 months since the unassuming granddad-of-one from Greta Gardens underwent a life-saving triple heart bypass at Newcastle’s specialist cardiac hospital.
As Neil puts it, he had been living with a “time-bomb” – having lost his dad John to a heart attack when he was just seven, followed by his older brother Gerald, with both men dying in their 50s.
Having suffered a mild heart attack himself in his mid-50s which required a stent fitting, Neil had every reason to be concerned when in summer 2019, then aged 68, he felt a worrying pain his chest.
It had struck as Neil walked on a special pilgrimage to Low Crag, Buttermere, to mark the 50th anniversary of a tragedy in the Lakeland fells which occurred on June 15 1969.
On that date, two members of Buttermere Mountain Rescue Team were killed in a rock collapse during a training exercise which went badly wrong.
Neil had been a member of Keswick Mountain Rescue Team in the late 1960s and early 70s and had been among those who had desperately tried to rescue the rescuers.
So having to sit down and get his breath at the 50th anniversary meet-up, Neil dismissed it as a chest infection, but wisely sought advice from the doctors.
He was referred to Carlisle’s Cumberland Infirmary for further tests and was found to have a major blockage in an artery requiring a life-saving operation in the North East.
Advised not to walk uphill or put himself under unnecessary strain, he went under the knife just three months after taking unwell.
Yet in a sign of his quiet determination, Neil turned down the offer of being wheeled into the operating theatre – instead choosing to walk to intensive care.
On discharge from hospital after a five-day stay, he was advised to keep his fitness up and clocked up his first mile of walking.
Neil bought himself a Garmin smart watch to track his progress and a new pair of walking boots, shedding two stone ever since.
Within nine months, Neil returned that same set of walking boots to the shop under the 12-month guarantee – except this time they were destroyed.
His smart watch shows that he has clocked up an incredible 7.5 million steps since the op – including personal bests of more than 46,000 steps in a single day.
Since his operation, Neil has walked 3,543 miles which is the equivalent to walking the length of Great Britain four times.
A year to the day of his operation he celebrated on top of a snowy Skiddaw.
During the first lockdown he walked around Derwentwater five times a week – a 10-mile circuit.
Neil said: “The most I have walked in a day is over 46,000 steps, which is about 20 miles, and the longest I have walked in a month is 400,000 steps.
“The best ever was the day when I gave Alan Dunn, the mayor of Keswick, a hand during his 24-hour charity walk around Fitz Park.
“I stayed with him all through the night and wanted to see how many steps it was, but when we got to midnight the watch reset itself!”
From the viewpoint at Castlehead, he can now tick off all the tops he has done since getting out of hospital – much of them revisiting the hills of his youth.
Grizedale Pike, Hindscarth, Maiden Moor, High Spy, Castle Crag, Great End, Grange Fell, Walla Crag, the list goes on.
Of his operation, it involved taking a vein from his right lower leg and then another from his chest and using both to bypass the blockage.
Neil said: “I’ve walked from Stonethwaite over to Grasmere now a couple of times.
“One advantage of having a bus pass as a pensioner is you catch the bus to Borrowdale, get off at Stonethwaite, walk over to Grasmere and come back over to Keswick on the bus.
“The other one I’ve walked is from Dockray on the way to Ullswater and back to Keswick.”
“I’ve also caught the bus to Buttermere and walked back to Keswick. I came over Robinson the last time I did it and that’s a steep climb out of Buttermere village.”
Not bad for a man with a so-called bad heart.
It might be why Dr Ramesh, the surgeon who operated on Neil at the Freeman Hospital nicknamed him the walker.
Since the op, he’s been up Great Gable three times, Scafell Pike twice, Skiddaw twice, Helvellyn, and been at the top of Causey Pike for 9am.
“My feeling was that I wanted to get my fitness back again,” he said. “That’s been the driving force of it. I just wish at the start I had thought about doing it for charity.”
Although he suffered from high cholesterol, he was never a man who avoided exercise.
He never smoked and was always active, having worked for Norweb for 27 years checking powerlines which involved a lot of walking to remote electricity poles and then climbing them.
He had always, walked, climbed, skied and cycled too.
The latter included a charity bike ride from his former home in Lazonby down to the Heysham Ferry Terminal in Lancashire.
It was then over to the Isle of Man on the ferry and a cycle ride around the entire island, and back. He believes his exercise went off the boil when he ran two pubs, including the Fox and Pheasant, Armathwaite.
Neil said: “I’ve always been one for being out in the fresh air.
“Living on my own, when you get out walking, you also get out talking to people.
“I just like the changing seasons and the tranquillity of it all – far better that than being cooped up in a little apartment watching daytime television, which I think is designed toget you outside!” he laughs.
Neil wants anyone who is facing up to the worry of cardiac surgery to have faith.
He said: “A lot of people can find it daunting but I would say don’t be put off by it. Have confidence in the surgeons.”
