How do you fight back when your heart tries to kill you? In February 2010, healthy, cycling, non-alcoholic poet Richard Tyrone Jones held his own joke funeral to mark his 30th birthday. Shortly after, he was struck down with dilated cardiomyopathy – heart failure. His heart became the weakened, baggy heart of an old man, his lungs bubbling with phlegm and his legs unable to walk more than a few metres. What had caused this triple-decker sandwich of misery? And can being dangerously ill actually improve your life?

Richard Tyrone Jones Has a Big Heart, at Buxton Fringe festival on Friday 15 July and Saturday 16 July, relates his near-near death experience through a series of darkly humorous anecdotes, interspersed with philosophical spoken word pieces exploring what it means to be alive, in pain, human and imperfect. Richard is backed by the British Heart Foundation and Cardiomyopathy Association, for whom he is organising fundraising gigs.

Richard Tyrone Jones has been a popular poet, promoter and host on the London and Edinburgh spoken word scene, racking up hundreds of gigs. This is his understandably-overdue debut show. He is appearing at Underground Venues, The Square, Buxton. Book at www.underthefringe.com or 02081 44 0070 noon-3pm. £6-7. Map