University friends Christopher and Jamie have always enjoyed taking on exercise challenges, from frequently running the Battersea 10k, to cycling from Land’s End to John o’Groats. 2022 was no different, and they sought a new challenge with the London to Brighton Ultra – a non-stop 100k continuous walk from Richmond down to the Brighton Racecourse.
Training, however, was abruptly stopped in early 2022 when Jamie was hospitalised after feeling some tight chest pains. He was subsequently diagnosed with Myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart muscle, and had to spend 6 months resting as part of his recovery. Whilst very fortunate that it wasn’t more serious, it was still a shock to them both that someone so active in their early 30s could have an unknown heart condition.
They were successfully able to transfer their London to Brighton Ultra places to 2023, and training began once again after the medical all-clear. Christopher and Jamie decided to raise money for CRY as part of the challenge, hoping to also raise awareness of heart health in young, active people. Jamie was fortunate enough to have a scan through CRY as part of his recovery and was very impressed with the efforts of everyone involved and the work that they do.
After many months of training, and with a goal to complete the challenge in under 24hrs, Christopher and Jamie successfully walked from London to Brighton from 27th-28th May, finishing just under with a time of 23hrs and 38mins. It was certainly one of the most intense challenges they’ve ever undertaken, especially the night-time section, but they are immensely proud of both completing the event and also the amount of money raised for CRY. Heart health is something they still continue to discuss and they will keep sharing this experience with those around them to help raise more awareness.
