Great North Dog Walk founder to have fourth round of heart surgery

Tony Carlisle, who organised the Great North Dog Walk, will be under the care of doctors at Newcastle’s Freeman Hospital on Monday when he has an operation on his heart.

Tony, who met up with pop star Peter Andre while chatting about the dog walk at Metro Radio yesterday, first had surgery on his heart in 2014 after suffering a heart attack.

Doctors will be removing six stents from Tony’s heart and performing a cardiac ablation, a procedure which scars small areas of the heart that may be the cause of heart rhythm problems.

This can prevent the abnormal electrical signals or rhythms from moving through the heart.

During the procedure, small wires called electrodes are placed inside your heart to measure its electrical activity. When the source of the problem is found, the tissue causing the problem is destroyed.

Tony, who is married to Nicola and dad to Summer, seven, Toni, five, and Taylor-Skye, two, said: “I’m feeling positive because I’ve been there three times already.

“I’ve got my three beautiful girls and Nicola by my side. I think they’re taking it a bit harder than me, but I am a very strong positive person and believe that accepting treatments is part of the recovery process.”

He added: “It was great meeting Peter Andre on Friday while I was at Metro Radio. I sat and chatted with him for a while. He was a really lovely guy and very approachable.”