Céline, 52

November 10, 2022, around 5:20 p.m., marked a turning point in my life. Since then, there has been a before and an after. That day, during a routine boxing workout, a sharp pain shot up between my shoulder blades, gradually spreading to my neck and then to my jaw.

I wasn’t worried, thinking I’d hurt myself while throwing a punch. At no point did I imagine that this pain could be a heart attack. Like many, I had internalized the dominant image associated with this condition: that of a man struck down by a sharp pain in the chest.

I waited five hours before calling 911.

Then, the hospital. Seven days of immobility in intensive care, a string of tests punctuating my days, and the crushing diagnosis that binds me forever to a life-long contract with the disease.

Thus began the painful journey of accepting that I was a carrier of a deadly and devastating condition, a confrontation with this weakened and vulnerable body. I had to absorb the violent shock of this transition: from a dynamic woman, full of life, to another version of myself in poor condition, suffering and enduring.

When the disease strikes, everything changes. It creeps in, takes hold, immobilizes. My body and my mind slipped away from me; they became strangers. Very quickly, too, the reality hit me: recovery, if it comes at all, will be long and tedious, filled with fear, anger, and confusion, with the sword of Damocles hanging over my heart.

The physical and psychological recovery was long, very long. To regain, at least a little, control over this wayward body, I focused my efforts “through and with” the practice of a sport. Boxing was an incredible driving force.

Other activities supported me just as much on this endless journey. First and foremost, writing a book. I owe this collection as much to a chance encounter as to a desire: the encounter with a researcher, and the desire to transform this ordeal into something positive.

Today, a new need has emerged for me: the need to commit to raising awareness about cardiovascular disease. That is why I created Infarct’Us. Because, based on my own journey, I am convinced that an informed person can save their own life.

Ophélie 31 years old

Arles, tattoo parlor manager

I am the mother of a 10-month-old boy. During my pregnancy, I was diagnosed with fibromuscular dysplasia (a disease of the connective-elastic tissue of the arteries), which led to renal artery stenosis. After a first month that went well, in the second month I started to have regular headaches, [...]

Mathilde, 28 years old

“I’ve had a heart problem since I was three months old. When I got pregnant last year, I knew things wouldn’t go like they do for other women. My cardiologist informed me of several things. First, my child would come early because my delivery had to be by c-section due to the condition of my [...]

Claire, 44 years old

Customer relations manager, Vauvert (30)

"I lost my mother 3 months ago to a heart attack. She was 68. I feel terrible, because for a month she had been feeling tired and, above all, had stomach pains. Having already had an ulcer, I thought like her that it was a stomach problem. The heartburn was often accompanied by nausea and vomiting. [...]