Kanu Nwankwo Recounts How His Wife Saved His Life After Hearing His Heartbeat

“His heartbeat sounded much louder than normal. I was listening to his chest and it sounded odd. It was the same faulty valve. It was like a ticking time bomb. It’s just one of those things we were lucky to find out.
“Our youngest was just three at the time. It was very hard. We broke it to them little by little. I said, ‘Daddy will be OK. He’s in good hands’. If I didn’t have positive thinking my life would have been in tatters. From lying down to sitting was a big deal. He had to learn to walk again,”

“The children would be face-timing me, asking: ‘How is Daddy?’. I remember one time, he was wearing a hospital gown and the youngest said: “Daddy, why are you in nightwear? What’s wrong? You are normally always in sportswear’.”
After six weeks in the hospital, Kanu was strong enough to be flown back to the UK. “The children were waiting for us when we got back. They wanted to jump on me but they had to take it easy,”

“Kanu’s heart doctor said to me, ‘What’s the routine you have been using with Kanu all these years for him to play football and win all his medals, the FA Cup and everything?”, she wrote.
“So I just said healthy eating, exercise and listening to your body. I wanted to use all my knowledge to help other people.”
Kanu completely agrees with his wife. He says: “My wife is right, you should listen to your body and take action.”