Join us in this awe-inspiring journey of Elliot Awin, who faced the unthinkable: giving up his lifelong passion for rugby due to a sudden heart condition. Witness how he transformed adversity into an incredible solo Atlantic rowing adventure, proving that resilience and determination know no bounds.

Discover how CrossFit became his new arena for competition and community and how understanding heart health became a pivotal part of his story. This video is not just about sports; it's about finding new paths, embracing change, and pushing the limits of what's possible.

Whether you're navigating life changes, dealing with health challenges, or simply needing some motivation, Elliot's story will inspire you.

--------- EPISODE CHAPTERS ---------

(0:00:00) - 3000 Mile Solo Row

(0:01:30) - Learning About Elliot & His Pacemaker

(0:09:10) - Overcoming Challenges and Harnessing Resilience

(0:20:01) - Inspiring Stories of Overcoming Adversity

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This video is about Elliot Story Of Resilience: From Rugby Player To Rowing The Atlantic Ocean P1. But It also covers the following topics:

Solo Atlantic Rowing

Heart Health Awareness

Resilience And Determination

Video Title: Elliot Story Of Resilience: From Rugby Player To Rowing The Atlantic Ocean P1 | Insideamind Podcast

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But I've now shared your story with him and he now thinks he'll row the Atlantic. I think resilience comes in two very different personalities. The first is Telly you'll win.

Thanks for coming on mate.

Thank you very much Pleasure to get to know you behind the scenes, but can you just tell the viewers and listeners a bit about what you do in your story?

So I guess the main reason why is I just got back 26th of January from rowing the Atlantic solo and unsupported, after sort of a bit of a journey through being diagnosed with a heart arrhythmia in 2014, having to give up contact sport rugby, which I've been playing since I was six years old, so at 27 that was kind of taken from underneath my feet so fine, had to sort of find a direction once that had disappeared what was the sort of impact on your life at that time when you got diagnosed with?

were you in a rugby game, weren't you?

no, so I woke up. So november 2014 woke up in the middle of the night and my heart rate was going 220 beats a minute. But as like a 27 year old bloke, most of us just think we're invincible, right?

so we uh, tried to get back to sleep, went to work the next day and everyone's like you look a bit tired. Um, everything all right. And I was like, well, I was up all night with a racing heart rate and hadn't been out the night before, so there's nothing, nothing untoward. And so they were like, well, you should probably go to hospital. That sounds really quick, really fast. So, again, didn't go to hospital, rang NHS direct. Like you, no one really wants to ring an ambulance, go to hospital.

So rang NHS direct. They sent me straight to A&E and they found Deltaway, which is an irregular pattern on my ECG which indicates a shortcut between my atria and my ventricle, so the top half of my heart, the bottom part of my heart, and the syndrome is called Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome. So I needed to then go in for what's known as an electrophysiological study to establish what irregular patterns were on my ECG and what the problem with my heart rate was. So meanwhile I carried on trying to play rugby because I hadn't seen a specialist who told me not to play rugby. So that happened in January and I was still playing rugby and just sort of monitoring my heart rate, playing 60 instead of 80 minutes of monitoring my heart rate, playing 60 instead of 80 minutes um physio.

Obviously didn't love it, but she was like oxygen on on standby because I didn't want it, like you don't want to give up fine, yeah, yeah, it was something I loved that it was.

I felt fine most of the time. It's just occasionally I got these sort of ectopic irregular heartbeats, um and so without symptom, I just felt absolutely normal. Um went in for an ep study, sort of mapping out the electrical connectivity conductivity of my heart in january and then I was diagnosed with another irregular heart pattern which is atrial fibrillation. Now one and a half million people in the uk have it or are diagnosed with atrial fibrillation and that is a vibration of the top part of your heart, your atria, so they can flutter at like 400 beats a minute. But the um pacemaking, natural pacemaking part of your heart which is called the av node in the middle, regulates that. So your ventricles then beat at your normal sort of pulse rate and sort of wherever, wherever it's sitting at the time.

um, and that came and went, so I wasn't in AF the whole time, so I still carried on trying to play rugby. So between being diagnosed and then any further symptoms, my last game of rugby actually ended up being at Twickenham playing for Surrey. So quite a bit of a. Well, I say that was my last game. That was my last proper game of rugby.

That's quite a nice way to go though Absolutely I proper game of rugby. That's quite a nice way to go though, Absolutely. I did know it was my last game at the time.

Yeah.

But of course it was amazing Like we won beat Leicestershire in the Bill Beaumont Cup in the final, which was amazing.

Yeah, that's cool.

In front of half a staff.

Like the 300 people Still cool, but so then that summer, like everything was fine. Uh, I then decided like actually everything wasn't fine, I went on a stag to poland, to krakow, right okay, came back and my heart was like all irregular, went to a and e af, so atrial fibrillation and they had to bring that back into regular sinus rhythm. So it had to be defibrillated in hospital, bringing that back into a regular rhythm. And then that was when I realized and saw another doctor said look, rugby is probably gonna have to be chopped yeah and obviously I then tried to play yeah yeah exactly because I felt fine, go back to pre-season.

Training in the fitness of pre-season was fine and obviously I wanted to go back to pre-season because, if you think, um, every Tuesday, thursday, saturday, I saw 30 of my best mates that I've known since I was six years old.

So for like 21 years I've played rugby with these guys. And to have that taken away, what do I do socially? That immediately replaces that Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday. It was like difficult, um. So I went back to pre-season and didn't go back to playing like at the same level so I think dorking was still playing in that two at that time didn't go back and play for the first it's good standard really.

Yeah, nice standard like level four yeah and decided to play for the vets.

They're like. They're like over 35s, which obviously isn't that young yeah, it's very young, um. So I went to play for the vets and five minutes into the game my heart started racing and obviously the old, all of the older guys, like in their mid-60s, like hang on mate, you're gonna be the one that's fit and healthy just come off and I was like yeah but so again ran nhs direct again.

Good old nhs direct. They then sent an ambulance to get me. They actually well, they sent a small like one of those little vans with put me on an ecg.

Came naturally to me.

I think I've only added about 20 kilos onto my Olympic weightlifting, but my technique is much better.

What was it like coming back to rugby. What was it like giving it up and saying enough's enough, and that final nail in the coffin, as it were, when they said actually it's going to be really serious if you carry it on. What was that like?

Yeah, it was really hard and I think, like reflectively looking back on that you don't see your mates Tuesday, thursday, saturday. And I also found it very hard going down to watch. I mean, I've never really watched much sport anyway because I've always been playing Saturday. So I've never supported a premiership club, for example, so I've always been playing on Saturday and I couldn't go down and watch dorking, Because you see everyone in the dressing room and you're like it's just not the same.

And so I never went to watch. Plus, you get the old guys who are like why aren't you playing then?

and you're like heart issues say the same story every time. You're a bit young for a heart issue.

You just want a sandwich. I've got a heart problem. I can't play rugby anymore. Yes, I miss it stop asking so I didn't go down. And then, looking back on it, it's like obviously that community you miss. And you just don't go down. And then, looking back on it, it was like obviously that community you miss and like you just don't feel part of. And then all your mates are talking about rugby all the time you go out on a Saturday night they're like oh, the game was so good. And you're like well, cheers guys so quickly.

It was quite sad to have to leave that community behind. I mean very sad to leave that community behind. But now looking back on it, replacing it with crossfit was nice because I had I could replace that competitive. I'm super competitive and so I could be competitive with this adult pe. I like that immediate gratification of scoring tries and carrying ball.

It was a big ball carrier yeah and so scoring a try is like hitting a pb and like a big olympic lift or um, and so because it's such a unique moment that can kind of be replaced with that so emotionally.

Physically it was transactional, so the transition was quite easy it wasn't easy, but looking back on, I understand now why it was easier To adapt to everything I wish at the point in time I was like I would have sat down a little bit more analytically with a few tools as to like I mean it sounds silly but to find a solution to rugby, and it just so happened that I fell into CrossFit rather than.

So you got lucky in some ways, yeah, 100% lucky.

But then understanding the need and of it it probably didn't come luckily, it probably just came with like a general instinct like that could be cool. Um, and now understanding the values that I replace have has been, has been that's awesome did you feel coming back to the rugby?

but you know, when you were calling the nhs line was that sort of a bit of like denial in a way. Be like nope, because I do that a lot with my stuff where I'm just like don't even want to think about it, like what was going through your head there?

uh, well, more of the fact that it almost seems embarrassing to ring an ambulance, like you don't want to be responsible for calling out emergency services. Um, I actually end up ended up having to call the rnli training for the row as well, but that's actually we did the same thing, um, but we can come back to that.

But no one wants to ring the emergency services because you're not sure that you are, that that is for you, but with your heart going at 220 beats a minute, what ended up being for five hours, um scary, yeah, it is scary, but for me I I never saw it as scary like and I think, um, the moment you see something as a problem or an issue is the moment you have to overcome it but.

If it's just part of what's happening. You never have to overcome it because your opinion of it is it's just, it just is.

And I think part of that is if you ring 999, it becomes a problem, yeah, whereas if you sort of ease your way into it through nhs direct, it's kind of a smoother what piece of advice would you give to someone who's in that position now, who might be having to quit sport, who whose identity might be sort of coming to an end, as mine has just come to an end with rugby as well? What advice would you give to that person, knowing what you know now?

Yeah, I think it's stripping back the values and aspects of that sport that you value the most. So for me, rugby was that community, potentially being a role model although I don't want to say that I was a role model, but the idea that you could be a role model, so like I was 28 when I had 77, 28 and I had to give up and it was great seeing the 18 year olds come through. The classic thing in rugby is when you're like when you, when you're starting up, you're 18, you're like they're all better than me because they're older, and then suddenly you're like they're all better than me because they're younger at no point, and that's a lot of those lines.

It's like when was I good? It's a five minute window 25, 26, but you're too like busy playing in the moment, exactly so yeah um, so yeah, that's also a good takeaway, is realize at what point?

in time, you are like you're in your prime and really appreciate that and be present within that, um, so yeah, the competitive nature, like winning games, like role model, community, and so understanding what people value within that sport, or it might be being outside on a saturday morning or the aggression, or um, so understanding what it is that you love about rugby, rather than the identity of rugby player, because you can't be a rugby player forever. Of course, there are lots of people at lots of clubs who carry on trying forever, but you might not necessarily be able to have that forever. So what is it that you love about rugby other than just it being rugby, that you might be able to find something else and that might come from two or three different things, because it might come from a sport that you take up in its place, but you're not outside in that sport.

So then get outside on a saturday doing something else. I love that.

I love that as well, you kind of embody the word resilient. In my opinion, you're a very resilient person. You were saying how, even when they were telling you know you can't play, you're going back and you're back. If a lot of people watching this will be struggling with doing stuff, at struggling with being resilient with their mental health, with their well-being, is that something you learn or is that something that's all like?

natural to you. This is a real question. I've been like thinking about like on the row, especially right sitting in the middle of the Atlantic, thinking like am I resilient? And the thing about resilience is almost like you have to overcome something to be resilient a bit like bravery you're not brave if you're never scared that's true, so like if you never have the opinion that something is a problem? Are you resilient that, as in?

for me, the Atlantic was at times really tough, but at no point did I think I don't want to be here, and so is the. I think resilience comes in two very different personalities. The first is I understand that this is a problem I need to overcome it.

Oh yeah, 100. We were just talking last week about how there's a four-year wait for just adhd medication alone. Four-year wait, and that's that's obviously something personal to me, but you see everyone going in with all all these different things. It's crazy to actually see. Like you just said, then it's very sad as well.

It's sad, it's very hard, it's hard to I don't the solution of every single wellness optimizer and let's use wellness optimization. It's very hard to understand, but if people are proactive within that treatment. And this this was kind of what I was coming on to is, at one point my heart. I went into third degree heart block because I had an ablation which was to correct excess conductivity. And then my heart went into third degree heart block, meaning it didn't go above 40 beats a minute. So I'd run up the stairs and it didn't go above 40 minutes. So I was then like obviously lightheaded because my circulatory system couldn't keep up with, like my oxygen requirement.

Yeah um and I was fitted for a pacemaker basically a year before my actual pacemaker got fitted okay but I went in for my admission ecg, which is basically to say you've arrived to have your pacemaker fitted, ecg, and I'd gone back into sinus rhythm so the third degree heart block had disappeared and so they're like okay, you're okay, go home.

I'm like, uh, I'm not sure, I'm not sure so I so then, proactively, having taken a big interest. I did mechanical engineering at uni, so, like I took a big interest in the science behind my heart problems and I think that's something that a takeaway that everyone should do, if that's helped you yeah, yeah, but if you obviously don't do mechanical engineering, gain a better understanding of yeah to gain an understanding of your heart yeah, or the mechanics of it.

Yeah, your mechanics like whether it's a meniscus in your knee or like to understand how you can best recover and then optimize and and beat that and not take no for an answer immediately. Of course no might be the answer like you can't do this, okay, but can I do this? Yeah?

yeah, um, always finding a way to overcome.

Yeah, it's not so much it's just, it's just not to stop right and keeping that momentum and inertia of what, of what's going on, um? And so I said I want to come in for an exercise stress test to make sure that my, in a controlled environment, my heart rate can go up to 180 and back down to resting without me dying yeah and so. So I said this is what's happening.

They're like okay, that's a good idea because you think that with anything revolving around the heart and you've had some serious issues is you're told to slow down and you're told to sort of get your heart rate to a certain number, nothing above that, and you have to be really steady state most of the time but by all means don't sit down for eight hours, 12 hours a day. I have clients of mine who have exactly the same thing and they're so scared to get the heart rate to a certain point because the fear they've got from previous I mean anyone would be like that. It's amazing to see that you found something like CrossFit, which is one of the most physically demanding things, immensely demanding as well that you've now helped that fear free. It's unusual.

I think it's because of things like that testing.

And the more you do it, the more confident you become.

And so that initial exercise stress test where I think I got stuck on a stepper with an ECG, took my heart rate up to 180, and then it came back down again. So had I passed out in hospital it would have been fine compared to being passed out true passing out in in the gym true so yeah, so I think that's the proactive part of like don't really take an ownership of your treatment okay rather than uh, rather than just the number of people.

I said oh, I was diagnosed with a heart arrhythmia. I was like which one? And they're like, hmm, I don't know. And it just surprised me that they don't care to ask the question. Maybe it's again, it's a bit of a denial thing, and so that could be something that people. It's a coping mechanism, but I think the better coping mechanism is the opposite of finding everything and trying to come up with a solution.

But also coming back to what you said earlier, you naturally just trust people when a doctor says to you you can't do something, you just go oh okay, if he's telling me I can't, I mustn't be able to do it. Therefore, what you've done is you've sort of questioned it and you've gone.

actually, I can, I've just got to find a way that works best for me and everyone's like that, and I think, because you were young, I think it's it's you were able to find the crossfit and the belligerent.

I guess it's not resilience, it's just belligerence I was um, I was reading a study when I was looking into all the heart failure stuff and pacemakers and it said recent findings shows that about 40 percent of pacemaker recipient recipients recipients recipients great word and up to 30 of heart failure patients experience depression and depressive symptoms.

Going through what you've gone through, you can see how like mentally challenging this could all be people out there who have got heart problems and, like joe said, you know they're scared to go out, they're scared to push and sort of bring back those bad memories. What advice would you sort of give to them? Knowing what you know and you've pushed the boundaries jumping ahead quickly.

Now it's like and it sort of gives me goosebumps just to like think about it is the number of when people have seen that I've completed the row, having rode solo, unsupported, across the atlantic ocean with a pacemaker. It's quite nice to hear a number of stories where people have said, oh, oh, I have had a pacemaker, but my doctor has told me I can't run. Play with my grandkids, let's say or run for the bus.

And you just rode 3,000 miles.

And so it gives people a little bit of that confidence piece to say actually I might be able to. I'm not saying everyone can go and ride the Atlantic with their heart condition, obviously, but it should be investigated.

I mean there was.

A mum got in touch with me to say my five-year-old was diagnosed with Wolf-Parkinson-White, which is one of the arrhythmias I was diagnosed with, and he was worried about going to school and playing football with his mates. But I've now shared your story with him. That's amazing and he's now thinks he'll row the atlantic that's just like that.

That's unbelievable.

Yeah, that is like all I needed to hear yeah and, like it, brings a lot of purpose to the row we hope you enjoyed part one of three of this episode.

If you're watching on youtube, please like and subscribe. And if you're listening on spotify, apple, podcast and subscribe. And if you're listening on Spotify Apple Podcasts, wherever you are, please leave us a kind rating. It helps us more than you'll ever know. Here's a bit of what you can expect in part two.

I had a heart operation and I just decided I was going to stay in bed for two months. I then saw you rode Atlantic and I got out of bed and came to this tour.

You just find it banal. You've done 3,000 miles in.