Father completes ’emotional’ Kiltwalk in memory of late wife

A father who lost his wife after she suffered complications from a heart transplant has completed an “emotional” Kiltwalk in her memory.

Neil Magill, 48, took on the 23-mile charity walk from Glasgow Green to Balloch to raise money for the British Heart Foundation (BHF), after losing his wife Heather in October last year.

She had been in hospital when he told her he was going to do the walk, and the plan had been for her to be waiting at the finish line, cheering him on alongside their 10-year-old son Mason.

But instead he did the walk in memory of the woman he described as his “hero” – and it was made all the more emotional when the route took him close to the church where she is buried.

“It’s been a good day, emotional,” Mr Magill said on Sunday after completing the challenge, which has so far seen him raise more than £2,000.

“Pretty much the whole way we’ve chatted about Heather.

“She is buried in the grounds of Old Kilpatrick Church, and I was mid-conversation with the group when I saw the church so at that point it was a bit emotional.

“I would love to do this annually now in Heather’s memory but as the first one, this felt a bit more significant.”

The couple met in 2011, Heather being from Glasgow and Mr Magill from Belfast.

Heather moved to Northern Ireland to be with him and they married in 2014, and she become pregnant a year later.

However, after giving birth to their son joy turned to concern when she suffered from postpartum cardiomyopathy – a rare form of heart failure that occurs in late pregnancy or soon after giving birth.

“There was no indication of any heart difficulties through Heather’s life and no indication of a problem, and she had a normal pregnancy, with no issues at all,” Mr Magill said.

“But about a week after giving birth, when Heather was back home, she sat up in bed in the middle of the night, and you could hear her heart beating.

“She grabbed my hand and put it to her chest you could really feel it pounding.

“Heather thought she was having some sort of panic attack and put it down to her body reacting to the trauma of childbirth.

“The next day we went to the GP surgery who referred us to the Ulster Hospital, where tests identified that she had heart failure.”

She was in hospital for about two months and so missed the first few weeks of being a new mum at home – but Mr Magill took Mason in to her every day.

After being discharged she went on to lead as normal a life as possible, with annual check-ups and managing her condition with medication.

“Her health was always in the background, but we tried to protect Mason from it,” Mr Magill said.

“He knew mum had to go to hospital from time to time for check-ups and he always knew mum had a heart problem, but we never wanted him to worry, and it didn’t restrict his life.

“Heather lived life to the full and we went away on various holidays each year. I think she tried to cram everything in for fear that something like this could happen.”

In 2025 a routine check at the Golden Jubilee hospital in Glasgow – the city where the family was now living – showed a slight decline in Heather’s kidneys, and she experienced further symptoms during a family holiday to Mexico.

“While on holiday Heather did appear to struggle with her breathing more than normal but we put it down to the heat and humidity in Mexico,” Mr Magill said.

But when she returned home doctors gave the couple the news they feared – that Heather, 49, needed an urgent heart transplant.

She was admitted to hospital in August last year and her transplant took place in September.

Sadly there were multiple complications in the days following the transplant and she died on October 1.

Mr Magill said: “Heather was my number one. She was my hero for how she handled life since the heart failure, she never let this hold her back, she lived life to the full.”

He added: “Although her story didn’t have the ending we all hoped for, it was not due to a lack of dedication from those involved in her care – including the incredible work of the BHF.”

David McColgan, head of BHF Scotland, said: “We are so incredibly grateful to Neil for taking on the Kiltwalk for BHF.

“It’s thanks to the amazing efforts of people like him that we can continue to fund lifesaving research to help us find the breakthroughs, treatments and cures of the future and turn research that once seemed like science fiction into reality.”

Details of how to support the fundraiser can be found on the Team Heather JustGiving page.