A Sevenoaks fundraiser whose wife suddenly died of a heart defect has raised nearly £25,000 for a heart charity after cycling the length of the country.
James Brown, 32, of Braeside Avenue, has now added to the £120,000 he has already amassed in the past year for Cardiac Risk in the Young (CRY) – a charity which aims to raise awareness of Sudden Cardiac Death.
His wife Katrina died of a heart defect, aged just 30, moments after completing a 10k run in 2006.
Mr Brown completed the 10-day, 939-mile trip from Lands End to John O’Groats with Katrina’s brother-in-law Graham Collins, one of her colleagues Nigel Pearson and mutual friend Tom Mitchell.
Mr Brown said of the feat: “It’s something you take for granted and then you look back on it and look at the map of Britain and you think, wow, I got from the bottom to the top.”
But Mr Brown said the expedition had its difficulties.
“None of us are cyclists, so by the fifth or sixth day we were struggling,” he said.
“We had practised before but the longest distance we covered in a single day was 60 miles, so we went into it not knowing what it would be like.”
He added: “We only had one puncture the whole way and that was on the first night when we stayed in a hotel called the Jamaica Inn in Cornwall.
“It’s renowned for being haunted and we were having a drink outside and one of the guys was joking about the ghost not being real and literally as he said it his tyre exploded as it was standing there by the table.”
The group raised £24,250 for Cry but Mr Brown hopes this can reach £25,000.
To sponsor Mr Brown or to find out more about his fundraising efforts, visit http://www.justgiving.com/lejog4cry or http://www.c-r-y.org.uk
