Orlagh Morris is a woman on a mission. The west Belfast woman is determined to encourage people to be aware of their heart health and learn vital lifesaving skills so she can help prevent other families going through the same tragedy she has.
One Saturday morning last November, the 34-year-old ophthalmic technician from Ballymurphy lost her father, Gerard Morris, to a cardiac arrest caused by a massive heart attack. Gerard had gone to Kennedy Way recycling centre with her mum to drop some things off as they had a leak in their house the night before and some things got destroyed.
Orlagh recalled: "Once they placed the items in the recycling containers, my daddy turned to my mummy and said 'let’s get home to make the Saturday fry'. Moments later my mummy noticed that his hands were no longer on the steering wheel.
“He had a cardiac arrest at the wheel, his foot went down on the accelerator and the car crashed into one of the containers. My mum managed to get out of the car and was screaming, and then one of the workers at the recycling centre, Pearse, took action really quickly, pulling my dad out of the car and starting CPR.”
The emergency services were called and Orlagh made her way there immediately. By the time she arrived, the paramedics had taken over from Pearse and were working on Gerard but tragically, his life couldn’t be saved. The paramedics and other workers commended Pearse, the employee who did CPR immediately, although he told Orlagh he wished he could have done more.
Orlagh said: “We’re so grateful for what Pearse did and it shows the importance of teaching workplaces and communities lifesaving skills. I’ve learnt first aid at work and how to use a defibrillator and perform CPR and I want to encourage as many people as possible to do the same.
“Even though my daddy didn’t survive, everything was done by Pearse and the paramedics to try to bring him back and that gives our family some comfort.”
Orlagh’s family has a very strong history of heart conditions on both sides and in the past four years as well as her dad, she’s sadly lost her uncle and an aunt, all to heart attacks. A number of her aunts and uncles have also suffered from heart conditions and events such as dilated cardiomyopathy, abdominal aortic aneurysms, leaking heart valve and heart failure. She also has a family history of high blood pressure and her dad had his blood pressure checked regularly.
She said: “It has really brought home how aware we need to be of our heart health and even in my 30s, making sure I’m looking after myself. After what happened to my dad and considering our family history, I got checked out and my blood pressure was high, but I’ve managed to get it under control now.”
Orlagh and her family miss Gerard, who was, “a quiet man with a heart of gold, a real family man”, deeply. She is determined to do something positive to help others, in honour of her “wonderful” dad and recently completed the SPAR Craic 10k road race on St Patrick’s Day in Belfast to raise funds for the British Heart Foundation (BHF).
She said: “It was daddy’s 70th birthday at the start of March and also would have been my mummy and his 51 st wedding anniversary so we’ve had a lot of big occasions to deal with in the last few months along with Christmas and the New Year.
“My mummy is still traumatised, her heart is broken and she just can’t believe he isn’t here anymore. I asked my mummy what she wanted for Mother’s Day and she said, 'your daddy back'. They shared everything together.
“I’m not a runner but a few girls I go to the gym with had signed up and encouraged me to do the 10k so I thought it would be a positive thing to do in daddy’s memory. It gave me a goal to raise money for a charity like BHF which is deeply connected with not only educating people on awareness of symptoms and learning CPR, but also lifesaving research into finding cures and improving treatments for heart disease.”
Orlagh, who has already raised over £1,200 for the BHF, said: “People’s kindness has been amazing, it's blown me away. This has given me something to focus on and has really helped me cope through my grief. My daddy was so kind and helpful and he would go out of his way to help anybody so I’m doing this in his memory to give something back. I know he was watching down on me that day and I can see him with a big smile on his face proud of me”.
You can donate to Orlagh’s fundraising page here.
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