Me and my brother at the start of Edinburgh marathon in 2015
I’m not running London Marathon this year (one of the many who didn’t get a place) but my brother is. Not only that, but he’s also running it with a pacemaker – a battery heart – owing to a rare heart condition he had when he was 12. He’s already raised over £5,000 for the British Heart Foundation, but the donations keep coming – click here if you’d like to give.
My brother’s story…
“I am raising money for the British Heart Foundation who have worked tirelessly to halve the number of people dying from heart and circulatory disease in the U.K. Quite simply, I would not be alive today without the research and development of the BHF.
When I was just 12 years old, I was diagnosed with Wolff Parkinson White Syndrome, a rare type of heart disease that is best described as having an accessory pathway in the heart. The additional pathway caused my heart to “short circuit” and beat erratically, at times in excess of 320BPM. At the time, it was curable with an operation called an ablation; but because the technology wasn’t as sophisticated then as it is now, the operation was unsuccessful and I was left with complete heart block. The doctors felt the best solution was to input a Cardiac Pacemaker, which is exactly what they did. I was one of the youngest children in the U.K. to have a Pacemaker.
Now in my twenties, I am on my second Pacemaker and it’s ticking along nicely. This year I’m running the London Marathon, with a target time of 3 hours 5 minutes. In fact, I’m aiming to set a world record as fastest person to run the London Marathon with a Pacemaker. I have applied to Guinness World Records and if they approve my claim I will update this page so your donation can also be a part of history….
As you can imagine, this charity is incredibly close to my heart. Thanks to the BHF, the technology I needed to keep me going as a young athletic child was available to me, and their research and expertise continues to help thousands of people to live healthy and fulfilling lives. It’s only thanks to support from people like us that the BHF can create new treatments and discover new cures. £25 could pay for an hour of research by an early career scientist, but every pound helps so please give what you can to help me hit my target.
Thank you so much for reading and please give generously to a great charity!”
We made some banners for him and we’ll be there cheering along on Sunday!
Mediatrixy 