“I want to be around for my son for a long time”: 50-year-old solo dad’s fight with heart disease

50-year-old Korie Nicol wakes up every day knowing he is just one heartbeat away from a heart attack or stroke.

Korie, a solo dad and builder from Wellington, is living with familial hypercholesterolaemia (FH), an inherited condition that causes life-threateningly high cholesterol.

Two years ago, a routine check-up revealed just how high his cholesterol was.

"I wasn’t overweight, and I felt healthy.

“I knew there was some family history with heart disease, but I was still shocked at how it affected me when my cholesterol came back so high and I was diagnosed with FH.”

He tried diet changes and medication, but side effects forced him to stop.

“I thought maybe I could manage with diet alone, but FH isn’t like that – it doesn’t go away.”

Just weeks after his 50th birthday, Korie’s condition caught up with him. 

“I started getting chest pains, pains down my arm. I thought maybe it was the flu, or just overdoing it at work, but it didn’t go away.

“Within a week, I was on a treadmill test, then an angiogram, then in hospital getting two stents,” Korie says. 

“It all happened so suddenly. I’m still processing it.”

Stents fix the immediate blockages, but they can’t stop FH. 

The condition has caused progressive coronary heart disease, leaving Korie at constant risk of further heart attacks or stroke.

“I’m still young – I want to minimise deterioration as much as I can, because I want to be around for my son for a long time,” he says.

“I’ve got a lot more life to live and a lot more to give.” 

FH affects an estimated 1 in 250 people and is significantly underdiagnosed in New Zealand.

In Australia, patients with FH have access to PCSK9s, which are a group of drugs that lower levels of ‘bad’ cholesterol. Taking these, alongside other medications, can dramatically lower cholesterol and reduce risk.

In New Zealand, patients like Korie must either pay thousands of dollars to get PCSK9s – or go without – meaning their cholesterol levels remain dangerously high.

“It would improve my health if I moved to Australia, but I can’t just pack up and leave,” Korie says.

“My son is here. Sacrificing time with him would cause more stress and anxiety than the disease itself.

“I’d rather have 10 more good years with him here than leave him behind to chase treatment overseas.”

Trust Chief Executive Ms Letitia Harding says inherited heart conditions like FH must be diagnosed early and treated aggressively to give patients the best chance at living a long, healthy life.

“It is outrageous that patients, like Korie, are left exposed to life-threatening disease when we already have proven, cost effective medication that can change their future.”

The lack of funded treatment options for heart disease, in general, is appalling, Ms Harding says.

“Right now, many New Zealanders living with heart conditions are forced to choose between financial struggles and preventable death.

“Every year we delay action, more lives are being cut short unnecessarily.”