The 15th September 2017 in the Centenary Theatre Liam O’Sullivan premiered his documentary “Harrys Heart”, this one hour documentary was cut down from over 50 hours of footage shot over 18 months. The documentary aims to educate the audience on the great work done by CRY (Cardiac Risk in the Young) through the telling of Harry’s story and his untimely death in 2013 aged 18 years old from an as yet undiagnosed heart condition more commonly referred to as SADS (Sudden Arrhythmic Death Syndrome).
After listening to Berkhamsteds very own Montana Brown (of Love Island fame) play an introductory piece on the piano Donna, Harrys mum, gave everyone an introduction to how the film came about and about the relationship Liam and Harry shared from their very earliest days in Nursery together. Donna then introduced Liam to the stage who told us about why he made the film and what it meant to him to make it.
Then the audience of over 200 people watched silently and apart from the odd sniffle you could’ve heard a pin drop. The film opened with introductory piece from Dr Steven Cox, Chief Executive of the charity Cardiac Risk in the Young (CRY), who explained who CRY are and what they do as well as giving an explanation of SADS. This was then followed by a series of interviews with Harrys mum, dad, grandparents, uncle & aunt, school & sporting friends who each told their story about Harry from events of the fateful evening, the type of guy Harry was, what Harry meant to them and how Harrys passing has affected them and their outlook on life.
Following the documentary there was the obligatory Charity auction with a range of items on offer from a Holiday in a Devon Cottage, Twelve Months’ worth of Haircuts, various Rounds of Golf on some of Hertfordshire’s Premiere courses, Sightseeing Tour of London in a Black Taxi plus several other interesting and exciting lots. The Auctioneer for the night was Liams dad John O’Sullivan who worked his audience well, so well in fact that the auction alone raised in excess of £8,000.
The evening finished with drinks in the hall and the drawing of the raffle with lots prizes too many to mention individually but all donated by friends, family and local business who had heard Harrys story or who knew Harry personally.
After the finally count up of monies from the Auction, Raffle, Bar and Entrance tickets a MASSIVE total of over £13,000 was raised for Harrys Charitable fund at CRY which for those who don’t know the monies are used to fund an annual screening service for the children of Berkhamsted Senior School.
We would like to thank you to all who: came to watch the documentary; to participate in the auction; who bought raffle tickets; who drank the beer and the bar and most of all everyone who supported us on the evening.
We would like to thank Berkhamsted School for the use of the Centenary Theatre and School Hall and for their ongoing support for CRY and Harrys Charity.
Finally we would like to thank Liam O’Sullivan whose idea it was to make the documentary and who along with his crew (Diane, Riaz, Anthony, Donato, Dammie, Armann and Mindy) shot, edited and produced the film.
Donna Faulkner
