On December 11th we suddenly lost our close friend and housemate Dan, lovingly nicknamed ‘colours’, to an unknown heart condition. He was 32 years old and just starting to find his feet in teaching history at a Manchester High School after an adventure packed life traveling the world. He was a keen sportsman who loved to run and would frequently participate in local park runs, 10k’s and half marathons, so in honour of his memory and to fulfill a promise, myself, partner Alex and Dan’s cousins decided to run the AJ Bell Manchester 10k race and to fundraise and raise awareness for C-R-Y.
The race was overall a great experience with such an electric atmosphere provided by the entertainment, participants and crowd cheers. I caught myself a few times needing encouragement towards the end of the 10K, thinking of my friend who I’d have hoped would be there with me.
So far we’ve managed to raise over £1500 which is a huge achievement but more importantly we’ve spread the awareness of undiagnosed heart conditions and had people make appointments with C-R-Y which is ultimately what we were here to do so hopefully nobody has to go through the pain of losing someone too soon or to a condition that could have been diagnosed sooner.
To anyone considering a fundraising event, I’d say just go for it and don’t hold back. The support we received from people who related to our cause was astonishing and we’ll be forever grateful to everyone who donated.
