Roshan Sohi, 24, needs an operation his surgeon says should happen within a month. The NHS wait is nine to twelve months. The appeal is at £75,725.
An appeal to pay privately for the heart surgery of a 24-year-old man from West Kensington has raised £75,725 in the month since it opened. It has taken 417 donations.
The fundraiser was started on 19 August by Lou Rudolph, the partner of Roshan Sohi. He was born with congenital aortic stenosis, which means the valve that lets blood leave his heart has always been narrower than it should be. He had a procedure at the age of six. The family say it gave him almost eighteen years of a full, active life, and that the past year has undone it.
“He’s had to stop playing sports,” Rudolph writes on the fundraising page. “A walk of a couple of kilometres leaves him exhausted, and most afternoons he has to sleep because his heart is working so hard.”
Where the appeal stands
Figures read from the page on Tuesday 22 September:
- £75,725 raised, from 417 donations
- the target is £100,000, lifted from £80,000 on 14 September
- the hospital wants a £60,000 deposit before surgery can go ahead
- the family expect the full cost, with surgeon’s fees, hospital care and any time in intensive care, to be over £75,000
The reading that changed things
Specialists judge the condition by how fast blood is forced through the narrowed valve. The family set out three numbers. A normal result is under 2.0 metres per second. Surgeons begin recommending valve replacement at 4.0. Sohi’s latest reading was 4.9.
At that level, the fundraising page says, untreated symptomatic severe aortic stenosis carries around a 50% mortality within two years. “Time is simply not on our side,” Rudolph writes.
The usual operation is a mechanical valve, which requires blood thinners for life. Sohi also has chronic primary ITP, a condition that stops his blood clotting properly, and the family say his medical team advised against a mechanical valve because of the bleeding risk that would carry.
His surgeon instead recommended a Ross Procedure, which the family describe as a highly specialised operation giving him the best chance of a long and active life. The NHS offers it, they say, but the waiting list they were quoted is nine to twelve months. The advice they say they were given was that he should ideally be operated on within a month.
“Roshan’s heart has already thickened from the strain of pumping blood through his narrowed valve, causing permanent damage,” the page says. “Surgery can prevent further damage, but it can’t undo what’s already happened, which is why every month matters.”
Rudolph is careful about the NHS in the same passage: “We completely understand the pressures that the NHS is under. But when you’re told the person you love should ideally have heart surgery within a month, waiting up to a year simply doesn’t feel like a risk you can take.”
What we can and cannot confirm
The account of Sohi’s condition here is his family’s, as published by them. The Kensington Post has not seen medical records and has not spoken to his surgeon or his hospital, and neither is named on the page. The money raised, the number of donations and the target are taken from the GoFundMe page itself and were correct when we read it on Tuesday morning.
The appeal was passed to us by GoFundMe’s press office, which gave his full name as Roshan Sohi, his age as 24 and his home as West Kensington. Donations on the platform are handled by GoFundMe rather than by the family directly.
How to help
- The fundraiser is at gofundme.com/f/help-us-get-roshan-the-heart-surgery-he-urgently-needs
- It needs a further £24,275 to reach the £100,000 target
- Sharing the page costs nothing and is what the family ask for first, alongside donations
Rudolph ends the appeal with what the money is for, which is not the surgery. “More than anything, I just want to see Roshan being Roshan again: Back on a football pitch. Back playing padel with his friends. Taking Pixie on long walks. Having the energy that every 24-year-old deserves.”
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