I am a chartered engineer, now retired, who survived a heart attack in 1995. The event and the subsequent treatment gave me an interest in cardiology and I joined the local Community Health Council to learn more. In 1999 I got the CHC to publish the results of my survey of the local provisions for heart patients. One of my recommendations was that the local hospital should create an additional consultant post in cardiology, and within a matter of months, it had happened, the CEO of the Trust acknowledging that it was my report that did it: PPI worked, and I was hooked! In 2003 the BHF set up its first Patients Advisory Group, and its members elected me to the chair. I was touched, and flattered, so felt I had to accept, and as a result suddenly found myself as a sort of Mr Heart-attack UK, in demand all over. Since then I’ve represented patients in the Department of Health, NICE, NIHR, MRC, RCS, the BMJ in UK, and the European Medicines Agency, EU-IMI, EUPATI and the Pharma industry more widely. My major interest is in research, and I maintain a participation in several trials, either as team member or independent adviser. I believe that the most promising sources of future patient benefit lie in med-tech for individual patients coupled with AI techniques in big data-sets. This explains my enthusiastic backing of the BHF Data Science Centre.