WOULD major heart surgery stop you entering a fund-raising walk?

It's not stopped Jack Croysdill. Despite a heart bypass operation in March, the press officer from Bispham will be walking Blackpool's 3 Piers Walk in just a fortnight for British Heart Foundation.

"I'm not doing the full four and a half miles, but I'm looking forward to the prospect of walking two and half," said Jack.

"You have to do these things at your own level. I'm determined to walk it."

Jack, Labour press officer for MP Joan Humble's Blackpool North and Fleetwood Constituency, has always enjoyed a busy, active life. He wasn't going to let a single heart bypass stop him.

"As long as you enjoy what you're doing, that's everything. I think you've got to be positive about things. You can easily give up. There's no point in going through an operation and not relishing the benefits after it," he said.

Jack found out he had a heart murmur when he was 24 during a medical for an insurance policy.

But it wasn't until he collapsed with heart failure in 1994 and was rushed to Blackpool Victoria Hospital that he realised how serious his condition was.

Doctors found a heart valve was 'leaking rather badly' and repaired it. None of this stopped a determined Jack from being a borough councillor, county councillor and an NHS director.

He was also a member of the Co-op board until 2002. "I began to feel tired and as the months went on I realised something wasn't quite right," he recalled.

"I went back to the Vic, which revealed that the mitral valve was leaking very badly again. They also said I had a blockage, meaning I needed a bypass. Apart from that, physically I was very well!"

A surgeon told Jack his heart should have been distended with the condition, but amazingly it was about normal size. When asked how this could be, Jack said that years before another doctor had advised him to walk three miles every day - which he tried to do.

"The doctor was amazed and said 'that was the best advice you could have ever had'," Jack said.

Jack will be walking with friends in the British Heart Foundation's 3 Piers Walk - taking in Blackpool's Golden Mile and three piers on September 12 - and he's being supported by a donation from Blackpool Self Catering Association (he worked in the industry in the past).

Jack urged Citizen readers to join in the walk. "None of us can live forever, but we want to be healthy while we are here. Walkers will benefit, and so will British Heart Foundation. "

To take part telephone John Carr on 01253 771496 for a registration form.