A FINANCE industry worker whose experience of a heart attack moved people around the world has told how the episode changed his life.

In a LinkedIn post that went viral at the end of April, Jonathan Frostick said his first reaction to being taken ill while working at home was: “This isn’t convenient.”

The emergency led to him vowing no longer to spend all day on Zoom and to change his attitude to work.

Mr Frostick’s post garnered 298,000 reactions on LinkedIn, along with 15,550 comments, and was picked up by the New York Times, Bloomberg, CBS News and others.

“It was humbling, actually,” the 45-year-old father of three told the Daily Echo.

“It was humbling that it resonated with so many people.

“I’ve still got messages via LinkedIn that I haven’t even seen. People said ‘I’m reading your post, I’m changing my life’. People were writing to say ‘I have to quit my work, life is too short’. It had an impact.”

Other people gave positive examples of how their employers were supporting people through the pandemic.

“Where I work, there was already a policy of safeguarding in place, there were structures in place on mental health support, all that stuff. But some people said ‘I hate my job and I’m going to quit’," he said.

Mr Frostick, a regulatory portfolio lead from Bear Wood, said he had always led “what you could call a high octane life”.

He left school at 16 and worked in the family building business before going to Bournemouth University at 25 to study business.

“I worked incredibly hard, have done for the majority of my adult life,” he said.

He said the pandemic had made it possible for many people to work day and night, with the rules in the first lockdown only allowing 30 minutes of exercise outdoors a day.

“It’s very easy not to take the steps you can to look after your health,” he added.

His LinkedIn post was written as he awaited surgery. “I was having a procedure, thinking I’m not sure if I’m going to make it. It’s a serious proposition,” he said.

“I was thinking, if this doesn’t work out, you’ve got this almost to say ‘This is where I went wrong’.

“I just kind of reflected on how we are as a society and how as human beings we have to recognise that we are human and when you have a taste of your own mortality, there’s nothing quite like it to put things in perspective."

Mr Frostick said he was now recovering well. He praised the care he had received from his GP, the cardiac unit at Royal Bournemouth Hospital and Bournemouth Heart Club.

“I think I’ve probably got another three or four months to go until I’m 100 per cent. I still get tightening in the chest and some breathing issues,” he said.

He said he had been meeting people aged from their 30s to their 80s who had suffered heart attacks.

His experience has led to speaking invitations and suggestions that he should write a book. “I’m trying to draft that with two or three ideas in mind,” he said.

“I think it’s quite overwhelming when you become the centre of attention for five minutes. I’ve almost fallen foul of getting back into the old habits but I recognise it quite quickly,” he said.

“I’m very much into changing how you approach your life – not focusing on my career and then fitting stuff around it.

“University and school don’t tell you how to structure your life. When you’re working and life presents its challenges, the first thing that goes is what you call your personal time.”

He said colleagues joke about his brush with international fame. “People say on calls ‘I’m glad you’re able to come to the meeting today. When are you going to Hollywood?’ I wish it was all like that,” he said.

“It stopped people and made them think – and that was the main thing.”

He said he was now prioritising time with his wife and his children, aged from nine months to nine years, from his two marriages.

“I get to be around to see them grow up,” he added.