After a great 19-mile run a few Saturday mornings ago, my wife and I headed straight to the pub for something to eat.

It had been a hot day and I’d got slightly dehydrated, but felt good after the run. Driving to the pub was fine - no issues - but when I got out of the car, I felt really dizzy.

I stumbled to the grass near the car park and sat down. My wife got me a bottle of water and full fat coke in case I needed some sugar. Drinking this, I felt a little better and we ordered food and had a drink.

Before the food arrived, I again started feeling dizzy, having the sweats and (according to my wife) had gone grey. I couldn’t regulate myself and felt myself passing in and out of consciousness. Before I knew it, an ambulance had arrived and started checking me over. A wonderful set of paramedics - thank you for your great care and attention.

Initial symptoms revealed my blood pressure was ‘in my boots’ and I was bradycardic. This resulted in me being rushed into hospital in the back of an ambulance with the blue lights.

By the time I got to hospital, I had managed to regulate myself and had stopped losing consciousness. I was now on ECG, had eaten an aspirin and had a cannula in my right arm.

At hospital, due to the potential bradycardia, I had to be admitted due to a potential ‘heart incident’. Cue lots of blood tests, ECGs and monitoring. An absolutely fantastic care package from Leighton Hospital - can’t fault the service at all!

Later that evening, with me feeling fine, it was diagnosed as a vasalvagal syncope episode due to dehydration. I was finally released about 01:15 in the morning, being told not to run until I’d had a full heart ‘jelly scan’ and check-up, which would be with 7-10 days.

Not the Saturday I was planning.