Wakefield dad who underwent pioneering heart surgery gearing up to break outdoor go karting record
A Wakefield man who underwent a pioneering heart stem cell procedure is gearing up to break a world record for an individual outdoor karting race.
Barry Newman, from East Ardsley, underwent a revolutionary surgery in 2018 after being diagnosed with heart failure.
Barry found out about the breakthrough procedure after watching a report on TV’s The One Show a year before.
Before the surgery, Barry’s heart only worked at 13 per cent capacity, and he was planning his own funeral and placed on palliative care.
The lifesaving treatment – which was carried out in London and funded by the charity Heart Cells Foundation - carried less risk of rejection than a heart transplant.
The surgery involved taking stem cells from Barry’s bone marrow, treating them in a lab, and injecting it back into the heart via the groin, which regenerated his damaged heart.
Now four years on, the thrill-seeking dad is feeling back to normal and is working out at the gym in preparation to break the world mileage record – 1,000 miles – for an individual 24 hour outdoor go kart race this summer.
And he has even got a new job working at a concrete block manufacturer in Knottingley – something he never thought he would be able to do again.
Barry said: “I can’t believe I am fit and enough and strong enough to even think about breaking this insane record. I am training four times a week and I’ve gone from 110kgs to 92kgs, and my heart is working at a mega 40 per cent.
“My life now feels like a movie that I can keep playing in.
“I’ve also got a full time job at Plasmor in Knottingley – you don’t know how good it feels to be back at work and earning a wage, I didn’t think I would ever be able to do this again. This is my second chance to live, and I don’t want to blow it.”
Barry will complete the challenge at Teesside Karting in Middlesbrough, one of the biggest tracks in Europe, spanning 1.3 miles, on August 5 and 6.
He has purchased the £6,000 kart that he will race in and aims to recoup the money, and donate the remainder of the funds to the Heart Cell Foundation.