Callum McNair (HWD 2010) and Hugh Woods (HWD 2012) have many things in common. Both were Howard House Vice-Captains, and now they are both lawyers. Both were also born with complex congenital heart disease and both required lifesaving surgery to allow them to survive.
They now have something else in common….
Callum and Hugh participated in the Adelaide City Plunge on Saturday 18 September, abseiling off the top of the Adelaide Intercontinental Hotel to raise much needed funds for HeartKids SA.
Callum, a HeartKids SA Ambassador, has a Fontan circulation, a complex condition which results in him having only one pumping chamber in his heart instead of two. Callum also has 7 holes in his heart. Callum has had 13 operations, including 5 open heart surgeries.
Hugh was born with Tetralogy of Fallot which is also a very severe and complex heart condition. If left untreated would have been fatal. Hugh underwent lifesaving surgery in 1994. In 2017 Hugh underwent a second successful surgery. This time it was to repair a damage heart valve.
Thanks to modern day medicine both Callum and Hugh lead relatively normal lives. Today Callum works as legal counsel at an ASX 200 company, while Hugh is a criminal lawyer and regularly appears in the District Court of South Australia.
HeartKids is the only charity supporting children and adults born with congenital heart disease. Congenital heart disease is the biggest killer of children under the age of 1. Everyday 8 children in Australia are born with congenital heart disease.
Congratulations and well done for raising much needed funds for such a great cause!