Tony Flynn, M&S Barnstaple

Photo: Susan Owen

I’ve recently come out of hospital after a triple heart bypass so I haven’t been using my pitch. Somebody else is using it now but I do a bit part-time. We’ll see how my fitness goes, whether I take on more hours or I just do a Friday for a few hours. 

I had a bit of a setback in January with breathlessness and sensations in the chest. I’d thought it was severe indigestion because I used to have an ulcer years ago and I thought maybe it had flared up again. But the doctor said he thought it was my heart. I was like: “What?” 

So I went to the hospital for the triple heart bypass on 14 May and then I was in hospital for two weeks. They admitted me straight away with severely blocked arteries and I had a bit of a bad turn one night and I think I skipped a queue because you wait in a queue for your operation. 

I couldn’t cope on my own and my daughter’s a qualified nurse so I went to her house for about two weeks and recovered there before I managed to phase back into my own premises. The first five weeks were very difficult because you’ve got to lie on your back and at an angle with your chest up because of the wounds. It’s been three months now but I still get tired and my body’s still very numb. My heart seems to be behaving OK. 

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I don’t know if I’ll come back to selling the magazine full time. I don’t think standing is very good for my condition – I’ve got to get the heart working. But people say: “Oh you must get a chair.” But I’ve never sat down when I sold the magazine. I’ve always stood. I would feel awkward sitting down.

I used to be a co-ordinator so I was bringing the magazines to North Devon and distributing them to other vendors. I got a commission out of that and then I looked after my pitch as well. I’d go to Exeter and come back on a weekend so we were ready to start on a Monday. Now obviously I’ve given that up. 

My customers have been very good to me. If you do a pitch for nine years, which I did, you just know everybody. Well, you don’t know everybody but they all know you, basically. But I know my regulars and they come out on a Friday because they know that’s my slot for the week. They’ve all wanted to know how I was and how I was coping so we’ve let them all know what’s transpired. 

I do enjoy selling. The thing is I was indoors from April when it happened and I only came back about a month ago. A lot of people stop and talk, so it’s just to get out and talk. I’ve still got the tabard on and I’m holding the magazine and doing publicity for the magazine. I think I needed that stimulation. 

I’ve still got an estuary boat with an engine. You can also row it and I’ve got two sets of oars. But it’s just standing there at the moment because I can’t use it. It’s got a trailer and you’ve got to launch it in the water. It’s all hard work. Probably next summer I can go fishing again. It’s only three months since major surgery so I do some walking for about an hour and a half then stop if I’m tired. 

I wasn’t scared when I went in for the operation. When they brought me around, I saw my daughter at the bottom of the bed with a big smile and looking very happy. I said: “What are you so happy about?” And she said: “Well, you lived. You’ve made it. The operation was successful.” Your mind just copes with it. I told myself that if I’m not going to make it, I’m not going to know. For some reason, I was at peace with it. 

Interview: Liam Geraghty

M&S Foodhall, High Street, Barnstaple, UK