Leading expert in sudden death cardiology puts his best foot forward to help save young lives
10k run also marks as milestone as Prof Sharma & team celebrate the screening of 100,000 young people!
One of the worlds top heart doctors, Professor Sanjay Sharma, will be taking to the streets of London later this month on behalf of the charity Cardiac Risk in the Young (CRY) as he joins hundreds of fundraisers in a high profile “fun-run” through the Capital.
Prof Sharma has supported the charity as its consultant cardiologist for almost 20 years and is based at St George’s Hospital London where he is Professor of Inherited Cardiovascular Disease and Sports Cardiology – as well as heading up the CRY Centre for Inherited Cardiovascular Conditions and Sports Cardiology. He is also the Medical Director of the Virgin London Marathon and has overseen the specialist screening of hundreds of elite athletes from premier league footballers and rugby stars to the majority of Team GB during the 2012 London Olympics.
Yet despite these incredible sporting credentials, the Vitality British 10K London Run (MAY 30 2016) will be the first event of this distance that Prof Sharma has taken part in!
Every week, at least 12 young (35 and under) apparently fit and healthy people die from a previously undiagnosed heart condition. Many – but not all – of these young people will have been involved in sport at the time of their death. Sport and physical activity does not cause these undetected problems – but it can significantly exacerbate an existing, undiagnosed condition.
A staggering 80% of these apparently healthy young people will have shown no previous sign of a heart defect until it is too late. That’s why CRY believes proactive screening in young people is so vitally important. Last year alone, CRY tested 23,000 people aged between 14 and 35 across the UK – and this month, the charity has officially announced it has tested its 100,000 person!
Chief Executive of CRY, Dr Steve Cox, says; “It’s so fantastic to see Sanjay running for CRY at the end of this of month and at a particularly poignant time for CRY as we come to the climax of our 20th anniversary and announce the inspiring news that our screening programme has now tested over 100,000 young people.
“We owe the success of this pioneering initiative to Sanjay – who has given so much of his time, expertise and wisdom to us over the past two decades – not to mention the huge levels of support and compassion he has shown to families who have come to see him in his Clinic, often following a bereavement and desperately seeking answers as well as reassurance that such tragedy will not affect their family again.
“So on behalf of CRY and all the families and young families we support I would like to thank Sanjay for once again going the extra mile (or kilometre!) for us and we wish him every luck on the run!”
TO SPONSOR PROFESSOR SANJAY SHARMA, GO TO: https://www.justgiving.com/Sanjay-Sharma2?utm_id=13
For all further information or to please call: THE CRY PRESS OFFICE: JO HUDSON ON 020 7112 4905 / 0770 948 7959: [email protected]
