BUSSELTON lad Ayden Glover, 12, will take part in a three-day HeartKid Teen Camp in Victoria in a couple of weeks.
He will be one of four children from WA to go to the camp, which is one of many held every year for children with heart conditions.
Although not technically a teenager until March, Ayden was invited to join the camp because he had been involved in several fundraising events for HeartKids Geographe.
He may look like an active basketball player, and is definitely tall like one, but Ayden suffers from Hypertrophic Obstructive Cardiomyopathy, which was first detected when he was nine, and he is not suppose to engage in any strenuous exercise. If he does, a muscle in his heart becomes so big it cuts off the airway and he can’t breathe.
And that’s why he has to keep his heart rate at a minimum, take medication daily and has a defibrillator in his chest. Thanks to a watch that monitors his heart rate he is, however, able to go swimming and surfing – if he rests in between the waves – and, of course, play with his younger brothers Lorne, 10 and Nate, 8.
During his time at the camp he will take part in several adventurous activities with other heart kids.
Canoeing, horse riding, archery, abseiling, bush golf, bike riding, tennis, cricket, trampolining, rock climbing, raft building and yabbying – you name it, he’ll be doing it.
“Basically it’s about letting these kids be kids, because 90 per cent of the time they can’t do this sort of thing because there are no doctors or nurses around,” Ayden’s mother Nikki said.
“I think they have more medical care there then they will ever have in their life,” she smiled.
Being the first time Ayden flies interstate, and alone, Nikki believes the experience will be a challenge for him, as well as for all heart kids attending. It will prove they can do what needs to be done as long as they have support, and that they are not alone. And it will be good for Ayden to “move out of his comfort zone and meet new friends” as well as have counsellors at hand in case he needs someone to talk to. According to Nikki, everything the family has been through up until now and everything they will be going through in the future is a learning curve for them all. Even for Ayden’s doctors.
“At his age, to have this condition, is very rare,” she said.
Every day, everything they did together as a family, they always had to consider what an impact it would have on Ayden and learn from it – what he could do, how far he could go and how much he could push it, she said.
With Ayden speaking about his condition at various HeartKids events, the whole family is much about making other people aware of heart conditions and encourage and motivate other kids who have a heart problem to think outside the square.
“In the first few weeks after I found out I was really worried, but now I don’t think about it too much,” Ayden said. “I just know what I can and what I can’t do.”