Wakefield man who was planning his funeral about to take on Guinness World Record karting challenge for Heart Cells Foundation

“Initially the thing that sent me to hospital was I just couldn't breathe and I kept going blue in the lips and falling to the floor, and as much as I tried I just couldn’t carry on,” he says.

This was a shock for Barry, from East Ardsley, who was then 48 and a “clean living boy - don’t drink, don’t smoke; fit as a fiddle, strong as an ox”.

Barry, now 56, says that his heart was working at just 13 per cent and his days were often spent in bed.

His fragile condition made a heart transplant impossible, he was on palliative care and did not have much hope.

“The condition just got worse and worse, and we got to the stage where we had parties at my house to say goodbye to all my mates. One of my best mates had his suit washed twice to go to my funeral.”

Meanwhile, during the course of his care, Barry’s cardiac physiotherapist was Nicki Simpson - an old flame from his younger days. The pair found that they still got on well and eventually got back together.

After she moved in with Barry, it meant his son, Robert, could go “live the dream” at the University of Sheffield, eventually getting a job at Williams Grand Prix Engingeering – a company well known to F1 fans like them.

In 2017, Barry and Nicki happened to be watching The One Show. The BBC programme featured a segment on a man benefitting from the Heart Cells Foundation, an independent charity which runs a small unit at St Bartholomew's Hospital in London offering stem cell treatment for people with heart failure.

“I said: ‘I need that - that's going to save my life’.”

He called up the next day to enquire, then tests showed he was a suitable candidate.

In 2018, Barry went down to St Bartholomew’s to have the treatment, which was funded by the Foundation. The surgery involves taking stem cells from his bone marrow, treating them in a lab before injecting them back into the heart via another body part. The idea is that stem cells regenerate the damaged heart and carry less risk of rejection than a transplant.

Barry, who now works at Plasmor concrete company in Knottingley, says: “From virtually word go, having it done, I just started getting better.”

Now, he is raising money for the Foundation by doing something that he has loved for years - karting. He is aiming to break the Guinness World Record for the greatest distance travelled karting on an outdoor circuit in 24 hours on Saturday and Sunday.

He says: “Heart Cells Foundation have literally saved my life, so I am fit enough and strong enough to even think about breaking this insane record – training four times a week. My life now feels like a movie that I can keep playing in. This is my second chance to live, and I don’t want to blow it.”

Barry will be doing the challenge at Teesside Karting in Middlesbrough under race conditions with other riders on the track. As long as he manages about 700 laps within the 24 hours, equating to 1,000 miles – all in his orange kart featuring the words ‘Stem Cell Baz’ – he will be successful.

The kart cost £6,500 and he aims to recoup the cost by selling it so he can donate that and any extra funds to the Heart Cell Foundation, hoping to raise £8,000 all together.

The Foundation needs £8m so that its treatment can be adopted by the NHS and beyond.

It comes after Barry carried the baton at the Commonwealth Games relay last year, parading through Scarborough in North Yorkshire.

During the event, he had to make a speech about why he was fundraising.

“I stood up and I said: ‘I’m actually doing it for you. Because if you get ill like I got ill, and this isn’t on the NHS, and you can’t get this treatment, you’re either going to have a really bad life or you’re going to die’.”

To donate, visit: https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/barry-newman-4

For more information about the charity, visit: www.heartcellsfoundation.com/