The first drug that I was actually prescribed was Atenalol. The doctor said ‘Come back to see me in a few weeks or so’, and I think it was probably a month and I went back to see him. Then he said ‘Oh I’ll add something to it’, because it was about the same reading; I’m not quite sure what the reading was but it was the same reading and it hadn’t come down that much. So then he gave me, I think – I hope that the word is correct – Bendrofluazide, something like that. I had 5mls of that along with the Atenalol, and I was told of side effects – probably a bit of itchy throat and burning eyes or something very similar. So I took that and I was on that for about 2 years.

Then my pressure went up again, and I went to the hospital and saw a consultant there. He took me off the Atenalol and put me on Istin. and it’s doing a great job for me. It did cross my mind once, the fact that you are on a tablet for 2 years or 3 months but your system would have come immune to that and then whether or not you should change that tablet for something else. But then I wondered if that is the case, then you’re prescribing a tablet that might be working for you and to change to something else might not. Your body is obviously not accustomed to that and it takes a bit of settling time. So, I’m not really concerned too much about taking the ones that I’m taking now – I wouldn’t like to be changed without cause. If someone says to me ‘Yes I think that, this has done you well but it’s time to move onto something else, I’ll probably question that ‘Why move on, why not take the one I’m taking because this is working for me?’ But I know that the answer to that probably is yes, as one tablet is probably as good as the other.

I don’t diet – I eat everything, but if I do know that something is going to cause my pressure to be up then I probably wouldn’t do it, or in moderation.

I believe that as long as I continue to take that medication, but with some other little aid like if somebody says ‘Have a glass of this, it works for about half an hour or so, or two hours’ something like that. If that is a supplement to what I’m doing and it can’t really damage it, it can’t make it any worse, it can either do nothing or leave it as it is, then I’ll do it. I don’t think about having a stroke and dropping down dead or something like that, it doesn’t bother me. I’m aware of that dieting too probably could play a great part in my life.

Up until about 3 years ago, I used to go running round in the evenings and probably mornings – most probably evenings. And at that time one of the things that used to blow my mind was going to a doctor and having your body checked out. Because theres this extra strain of running, if your blood pressure goes high and you suffer from something or other; and that did bother me for a little bit. On the other hand I thought if you do it in moderation – I’m not going to start sprinting, I’ll go for walks, just for walks and then a 10 yard sprint and stop again and walk a few yards again and that type of thing. I’m aware if you put too much pressure on your heart or something that you might just not come back home.

But I don’t do anything that I think physically will stretch my body. But I do mentally, sometimes I am bit concerned for myself because I do take part in a lot of activities within the various associations and that itself becomes very stressful sometimes. Whilst I’m doing it I’m okay and it doesn’t bother me but people will say ‘You’ve got to slow down. For instance this week I’ve got 2 AGMs and a reunion and that’s after work. They say ‘Well you haven’t got to do all day’ but whilst I’m doing it, it’s no pressure to do it, but I’m still thinking mentally that I have to go out there and do it and because of that obviously you end up with not as much sleep or as much rest and may be an accumulation of things.

I don’t suffer with headaches, I haven’t had a headache for many years now. What I have suffered in the past is a pain in the neck. And I was told that could be stress related and not necessarily the blood pressure. But the things I do tend to push the pressure up. I think I know when my pressure is actually going up. Although I don’t suffer from business or anything like that I can feel this pain and something tells me ‘Slow down a little bit.

I’ve spoken to people since I had this of course, I’ve spoken to people who have been greatly hindered. It’s affected their life quite a lot in as much that they will say ‘Okay I can’t do this because I think it would affect me, I can’t drink this because it would affect me, I can’t eat this- – -. The doctors haven’t said not to do it but other people say ‘You mustn’t do it. So what we need is more education about these days, people to talk more openly about it. Within the black population they found that people with hypertension, diabetes and sickle cell tend to keep it a secret and they don’t really share that type of information.

What were looking at within all groups is setting up a paper with these things, obviously hypertension were talking about now, where people can exchange ideas and talk about it a bit more freely. Because what’s good for one person is not necessarily good for the other person. A lot of peoples experiences are quite different, but it would be nice to have a forum where we can actually talk about it and to find out more about it, in other words lots of professional input.

My last 3 or 4 readings were pretty normal for me, it was 148/80 which I thought was pretty good and that was when I rushed into the surgery after trying to find some place to park. After waiting for about 10 minutes it came down I think to 140 over 80 and that was pretty good. So I would say Istin is doing a great job for me.

When I found out that I had high blood pressure, the first thing that came to me was how long was it there? I didn’t know it just manifested itself because of what I was doing, but it could have been there for some time. I didn’t feel any different in my body at all, I felt the same that I did feel 6 weeks previous to it when I found out. But I didn’t actually believe that I was a genuine case of hypertension. I felt at the time that that was probably because of the extra bit of stress and anxiety and that once that had passed it would go again. I didn’t think that it was something to stay.

After a few months I did go back and have the tablets. I felt like ‘theres something wrong with you, the things you could have done last week, last year – you’ve got to think about it. So my self-esteem dropped just that little bit to think ‘Now here I am, people out there, the world at large, still think that you’re probably a fit Police man, you’re a fit person’ But you think yourself ‘I’ve got hypertension, I can’t do the things that they think I can, that I can do,’ you know. So I would say yes that it did make that little bit of difference to me and the job.

I think it was around 1995 in the summer. It all came about because at the time we were busy trying to buy a property, I needed the insurance, obviously. And up until then I felt fine, nothing at all actually. I suppose buying a new property makes you a bit hyper. I went along to the doctors, after the insurance was approved, to have a medical and he said ‘I think your blood pressure is a bit high.

I left the doctors, came away, filled the forms out, andabout 2 or 3 months later nothing happened. I went back to my GP, the practice, and the GP I saw previously wasn’t there. I saw another person and I said ‘Look I’ve been told that my pressure was high and I’m a bit concerned because nothing was actually done about it. He said ‘Okay well take it again’ and then he said ‘Oh, you are a bit high, I think were going to have look at some kind of medication. So I waited probably 3 months, just waiting for nothing at all. Then I thought,what would that mean to me, taking medication? I thought ‘Okay it’s just something that happens to I don’t know, I suppose a quarter of the population or something – it’s nothing, it’s no pain, it’s nothing, they’ll just put you on something.

I believe that as long as I continue to take that medication, but with some other little aid like if somebody says ‘Have a glass of this, it works for about half an hour or so, or two hours’ something like that. If that is a supplement to what I’m doing and it can’t really damage it, it can’t make it any worse, it can either do nothing or leave it as it is, then I’ll do it. I don’t think about having a stroke and dropping down dead or something like that, it doesn’t bother me. I’m aware of that dieting too probably could play a great part in my life.