A woman who was forced to sit on the sidelines during school sports after doctors strongly advised her not to exercise due to a rare heart condition has defied expectations and is now set to run the London Marathon just like her godfather, who raised £10,000 in her honour running the same marathon 25 years ago.
Georgie Spurling, 29, from London, was diagnosed with a congenital heart defect called double inlet left ventricle when she was born, disrupting her blood flow through the heart, and meaning she needed surgery at just four years old and was advised not to exercise at all.
However, as Georgie became a teenager the reality of her condition sunk in and as she watched her extremely active family throw themselves into sports, the teen became heartbroken as she spent her youth sat on the sidelines during PE until she decided to take dance at sixth form, going on to and defying doctors’ expectations.
Now, in honour of her godfather, Peter Smith, 61, who ran the London Marathon in 1998 raising £10,000 for the hospital Georgie was receiving treatment in, Georgie is running the 2023 London Marathon in April this year to raise money for the British Heart Foundation – proving that her heart condition won’t stop her doing the things she loves.
“If I can just cross the finish line, I will prove a lot of people wrong,” she said. “I’ve had to battle my whole life to do the things I love.”
Double inlet left ventricle disrupts the blood flow through the heart due to Georgie having only one pumping chamber instead of two – she needed heart surgery at just four years old in 1998.
“I remember bits and bobs, it was quite scary,” she said. “Obviously when you’re four you don’t really know what’s going on, which is almost a good thing.
“The procedure changed the way my heart is plumbed. Instead of my blood going through the heart in a figure of eight, mine goes in a circle. It means my blood is mixed rather than oxygenated and deoxygenated.”
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Determined to help, Georgie’s godfather, Peter Smith, ran the London Marathon, raising a staggering £10,000 for Guys and St Thomas’s hospital in London, providing beds for parents, and toys and videos for patients.
“I was in hospital for a very long time when I was four,” explained Georgie. “He came to visit and saw parents sleeping on chairs and floors and also very ill children.
“He decided to run the London marathon and managed to raise £10,000 which he gave to the ward. It’s really amazing.”
But despite the surgery’s success, Georgie was advised to stay away from physical activity due to her condition causing the oxygen rich and oxygen poor blood to mix before it is pumped through the rest of her body, which means if she does exercise it is like she is training at altitude.
“It didn’t really hit me until I was a teenager,” she said. “That’s when things began to get really hard. My dad is an ex pro golfer and my family are incredibly sporty. It was hard being left out of all these things. You start to realise the enormity of the situation, which was really, really difficult.”
But Georgie dreamt of enjoying life at a more active pace and in sixth form signed up for dance A-level.
“I’m quite tenacious,” said Georgie. “At sixth form I decided to do dance A-level. I was mentally struggling a bit and thought it would help me. It was the best decision I’ve ever made much to the doctors’ horror.
“It felt amazing to be in tune with my body and be able to move. There was a certain element of feeling normal. I just felt right, but I had lots of tests to check if it was okay. That’s when things started changing.”
And as Georgie defied doctors’ expectations, she decided to turn her love of fitness into a career training as a PT – prompting doctors to study her progress.
“When I said I’m going to become a fitness coach they were surprised,” she said. “It was a battle and again lots of testing. They started to use me for tests and trials in terms of how exercise can benefit your heart. We found out that exercise actually helps strengthen my heart.”
Crediting fitness with transforming her mental health, Georgie started her own fitness platform, Arvra, but despite her fitness success there was one thing Georgie always wanted to do: complete a London Marathon just like her godfather.
“People thought I was crazy,” she said. “But I’ve always wanted to do it. I was nearing 30 and was the fittest I’d ever been. So I thought now is the time to go for it.”
Determined to complete the 26.2 mile run, Georgie signed up to the 2023 London Marathon – aiming to beat her godfather’s £10,000 fundraising goal for the British Heart Foundation.
Heart defects are diagnosed in at least one in 150 births. Thanks to research and funding from the British Heart Foundation more than eight out of 10 survive to adulthood.
“The longest I’ve run so far is 14km,” she said. “I’m proud of that, the longest I was allowed to run before was a quarter of a mile. I don’t think I’ll be able to run all of it, I’ll have to walk some of the way.
“I’m doing one run a week at the moment. The difficulty is if I over train I could damage myself for life. So I have to find the right balance.”
And Georgie’s godfather will be at the finishing line waiting for her.
“He told me to enjoy the day,” she said. “He also told me to try and beat his fundraising. It would mean so much to raise that amount.
“It’s going to be a very special moment meeting my godfather and parents at the finish line.”
Georgie hopes to inspire more people to get moving.
“I’m all about feeling strong and powerful from the inside out,” she said. “I felt very weak as a child and had to sit on the sidelines. Exercise has made me feel really strong.
“We see so much online about aesthetics, but it’s not about that. It’s about feeling powerful in yourself.”
To donate to Georgie’s fundraiser go to www.justgiving.com/fundraising/georgie-spurling.
