The
Cardiomyopathy
Association

Poet and writer Richard Tyrone Jones is to perform a new show about his cardiomyopathy at the hospital he credits with saving his life.

Richard’s show, called Big Heart, is being previewed at the Royal Free Hospital in London before heading to the Edinburgh Fringe and a 12-date tour around the UK.

CMA supporter Richard, who has dilated cardiomyopathy, suffered a cardiac arrest aged 30 in 2010. In the show he charts his experience and recovery in a mix of poetry, anecdotes and animations.

Now almost fully recovered, he will be giving a special preview on Friday, June 15th, 4pm in The Atrium at The Royal Free Hospital, Pond Street, Hampstead.  Entry is free but he will collecting donations for the Cardiomyopathy Association and the British Heart Foundation.

The performance will be followed by a Q&A session with Richard and leading cardiac experts including Professor Anthony Mathur, one of the UK’s leading researchers into stem cell treatments for dilated cardiomyopathy.

The show’s publicity materials say that Richard battled back from the brink to almost full health and armed with a pen and a pacemaker, he has written a show about his experiences, which he describes as 'a unique prescription of cardiomyopoetry, animation and anecdosage.'

“Here is truly a show for anyone who ever had a heart….or failure. Many artists consider their show to be as important as life and death - this one literally is.”

Richard is a founder of spoken word clubnight Utter! which is celebrating its 10th birthday this year and is director of Spoken Word for the PBH Free Fringe. Germline, his first book of stories, poems and art, was published by Vintage Poison Press in 2009. Big Heart (& other sickness) will be published this summer as an e-book and paperback.  His tour is being supported by the Wellcome Trust.