A Glasgow councillor has opened up on his own health battles after undergoing a triple heart by-pass after first reporting "breathlessness."
Chris Cunningham, an elected member for Scotstounhill and Garscadden, was becoming frequently out of breath at the beginning of 2025.
After being referred to his general practitioner (GP) who said his lungs were clear, Chris then visited Gartnavel Hospital for further investigations where he was diagnosed straight away.
Speaking to the Glasgow Times, he said: "I went to my doctor and said 'I'm feeling breathless all the time or quite often, I think it's something respiratory.'
"They checked me again and he said my lungs were clear, but he was going to send me to hospital."
At the facility, Chris was asked to walk on a treadmill while they monitored his vital signs for any abnormalities.
It was then that he was diagnosed with angina, which is pain and discomfort caused by reduced blood flow and oxygen to the heart.
He explained: "I went on the machine for 10 minutes and the doctor just said 'stop, you've got angina.'
"To say the least, it was a surprise, but I knew that things were not right because I felt as if I was running out of breath all the time.
"I'd spoken to some people and they would say, 'we're going to put a couple of stents in, they will do it straight away and you will be up and about instantly'.
"But in my case, they said, 'no, you’re getting a heart bypass.'"
Reflecting on his role in the council, Chris said his experience in Clydebank's Golden Jubilee Hospital left him feeling like a "mystery shopper."
As the city's convener for Health, Care and Caring and Older People, he says he was intrigued to have his own experience within the health service as a patient.
He shared: "In all honesty, I felt at times like a mystery shopper when I went into hospital because I'm a member of the health board so I had a slightly professional interest in what was happening.
"No one's experience of the health service is perfect, but my experience with the Golden Jubilee is that it's really very good.
"I got out after less than a week, and they get you up walking straight away. They don't hang about, bed rest is not a thing."
However, unfortunately it wasn't smooth sailing for Chris as after leaving hospital he experience some complications.
Atrial Fibrillation is a series of rapid, irregular heartbeats caused by faulty electrical signals in the heart's upper chambers.
Chris explained: "Usually you've got two wounds. One of them is a kind of zip line up your chest and the other is almost certainly on one leg where they've opened it up to harvest some blood vessels to stick in your chest.
"There's a period, of around six weeks, where they need to heal and you need to take it easy.
"My complication was atrial fibrillation where your heart just starts racing.
"It can be a little scary and in those circumstances, your fallback, is not the Golden Jubilee because it has no accident and emergency.
"There were a couple of times I was in at the GP and there were three instances where I was over at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital and two of them were because my heart was racing in the middle of the night."
After an adjustment of medication and further treatment Chris then undertook several weeks of rehabilitation and is now continuing his recovery.
Commenting on his experience within the NHS, Chris said he was thankful for the staff that helped him through this tough period and reflected on his time at each hospital.
He said: "It's important to show all sides of the health services. I've seen the best of it in the last year. I've seen situations where I think it's maybe not working quite as well as I would like to.
"I don't want to be critical of professionals and clinicians working in incredibly stressed environments.
"I think that's one of the things about the Queen Elizabeth is it's a very, it's a stressed environment because it's got huge numbers of people coming through all the time."
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