Pauline O’Shea is the Advocacy Campaign Manager, at the Irish Heart Foundation. With a background in Marketing, Pauline’s career and life took an unexpected turn for the worst when, after the birth of her third baby in 2012, when she experienced a torn artery in her heart, called SCAD, which was subsequently misdiagnosed, resulting in repeat heart attacks, a cardiac arrest, emergency open heart surgery, and a diagnosis of heart failure, all at just 38 years old. With an initial heart function post-surgery of 10%, Pauline spent the next five years trying to get well and look after her children. Then in 2018, she set up SCAD Ireland to help and support newly diagnosed SCAD patients. Pauline went on to advocate for SCAD patients and was invited to speak at a number of medical conferences in Ireland and abroad on SCAD and the issue of women’s heart health. She also began to work with the charity sector in Ireland to advance the supports offered to cardiac patients, including those for heart failure, heart attack, ICDs, and SCAD,(who’s lack of supports, she herself had experienced). In 2022, Pauline, who still lives with heart failure, was appointed as Advocacy Campaign Manager at the Irish Heart Foundation to advocate for both heart and stroke patients in Ireland at national level. As well as representing the patient interest in healthcare, she now also represents the patient issues at national and political level in Ireland and runs a patient advocacy programme at the Irish Heart Foundation called Patient Champions, which enables heart and stroke patients from all over Ireland to work with the organisation on advocacy issues. In 2025, this pairing led to the foundation of the Oireachtas Heart & Stroke group in Leinster House, where over 60 political representatives signed up to champion the causes of heart and stroke in Ireland. In her own words… “My journey to this role came out of my own experience as a heart attack survivor. With complications, including misdiagnosis, cardiac arrest, and therapies that included open heart surgery, as well as ICD implantation, I became very passionate about the way patients were treated and informed in healthcare. I now represent cardiac and stroke patients at national level through the Irish Heart Foundation, trying to highlight to policy and decision makers the importance of patient care and welfare beyond purely medical requirements, so that the patient is seen as more than their diagnosis, and acknowledged and recognised in society as human beings with complex needs. This includes advocating for consciousness of the psychological, social, economic, informational, and peer supports required for patients, and the funding of services for same, to help patients achieve their best health post diagnosis. I believe that my direct experience of being a cardiac patient, has added to my ability to represent the cardiovascular patient community and has assisted in harnessing the help and support of other cardiovascular patients in Ireland for advocacy. And I believe that being an employee of the Irish Heart Foundation and being able to develop an advocacy programme for the patient community represents the organisation’s dedication to the patient advocacy agenda. Now building on the alliance of organisation and patients, with advocacy alliances with healthcare professionals and politicians, I think we can really aspire to some positive changes for cardiovascular patients in Ireland.’ Pauline O’Shea, Heart patient, PPI rep, and Advocacy Campaign Manager, Irish Heart Foundation