It was the 1990s and cholesterol was everywhere in heart news.

I didn’t want to know about it. I was tucking into Camembert cheese, pastries, butter, and big fat steaks. Besides, I was a female in my 20s, a non-smoker and in good health; cholesterol didn’t apply to me. Or maybe it did? My family has a history of heart disease. My father had recently died of a massive heart attack at age 52. Could I inherit this fate?

One day, my workplace was offering free cholesterol screening tests. I went out of curiosity, convinced that my result would be OK. A few days later, I was told to see my GP ASAP.

I had more thorough tests. The results were not pretty. I had a calculated coronary risk ratio twice the average and everything was over the recommended limit. Suddenly, I saw myself on a stretcher – like my father – being wheeled into an ambulance. It was time to make some serious lifestyle changes.

After a few months dedicated to a healthier lifestyle and diet, I returned to my doctor, quite a lot thinner and confident he would have good news. He didn’t.

I had managed to reduce my total cholesterol level from 8.8 to 8.0. It wasn’t enough. I was placed on statins and became vegetarian. I increased my physical activity levels. I was driven. For years, my blood lipids stayed in a good range and showed no indication of what was to come.

Fast forward to 2015.

I felt an unusual single transient sensation travel from my collarbone down my left arm while I was at work. It never re-occurred and I felt fine, but still I went to the campus clinic that same afternoon. Within 30 minutes, I was on the stretcher – like my father – going to hospital in an ambulance.

The difference was, I did not have a heart attack and die. But I did have a 98% blocked Left Anterior Descending coronary artery (the “widow-maker”) and a Coronary Bypass Artery Graft which saved my life.

Now in 2025, with new research, better medications, expanded knowledge, there is so much more that can be done for people with seemingly intractable elevated blood lipids. Now I know I have elevated Lp(a). I recently qualified via the Dutch Lipid Score to have genetic testing for a formal diagnosis of FH. I’m waiting to hear those results and this time I am not in denial. I’m actually excited. Knowledge is empowering and life-saving.

Please find out early if you have inherited the genes for Lp(a) and FH so you can act on it sooner. I wish I had known in the 90s.