A MOTHER with a mystery heart defect that can cause her to collapse at any time - a condition that also affects her 12-year-old daughter - was treated to a glamorous make-over for Christmas, thanks to her best friend.
Siobhan Pringle, 31, and Pamela Marshall were the lucky winners of our festive beauty competition, where we asked readers to nominate a pal who deserved a surprise treat.
The pair enjoyed a £100 shopping spree each at the St Enoch Centre and the special treatment continued at Rainbow Room Royal Exchange Square, where they were given party-ready hair and make-up courtesy of the salon’s award-winning glam squad.
Siobhan and Pamela are as close as friends can be. They meet up every day, live yards from each other and their 8-year-old daughters are also pals.
Pamela, 30, a mum-of-two said: “I nominated Siobhan because she never does anything for herself.
“She’s got three kids and she’s a single parent and she doesn’t everything for them. She never takes time to do anything for herself. I’m forever telling her, you need to look after yourself.
“She just deserves it. She’s a great mum and a great mum it’s just nice to see her relaxing and enjoying herself.”
Cardiologists don’t know what causes Siobhan’s heart rate to drop suddenly, at random, leading to her collapsing. The episodes started happening around a year ago, the last one, two weeks ago while she was at home.
She has been fitted with a loop recording monitor which sends a heart trace back to doctors but does not stop the episodes happening.
Her 12-year-old daughter Aimee started having the same problem, two years ago at the age of ten.
Siobhan said: “I was collapsing all the time and my heart was beating really slowly.
“Nothing triggered it. It was just happening randomly.
“I’ve got a recorder that was put to try to it monitor but it just records what’s happening with my heart and sends it back to the cardiologist.
“It’s happened a few times when I’ve been out and about but mostly it happens in the house. The last one was two weeks ago.
“It’s frightening. It can still happen though. It’s not great obviously because you don’t know when it's going to happen. I'm not allowed to drive.
“Sometimes I get no warning and another times it feels like a fainting episode.”
Siobhan’s daughter Aimee, 12, started collapsing three years ago and is also being monitored by cardiologists at the Royal Hospital for Children in Glasgow. She has two other daughters, aged 5 and 8, who have not shown any symptoms so far.
Siobhan said: “Aimee had the monitor put in when she was ten. We were in the house the last time it happened.
"If it happens I just have to put her in the recovery position. If she is unconscious more than five minutes I have to call for an ambulance.
“It has a big impact on her life but it’s just something she knows she has to get on with.”
Siobhan was surprised and delighted to find out Pamela had nominated her for the prize.
She said: “It’s lovely. Friends like that are hard to come by. It’s good to have someone who understands.”
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