Bryany's London Marathon for BHF in memory of John Burdett
Bryany Sherwood
My Story
I'm running the London Marathon for the British Heart Foundation in memory of my Uncle John.
The British Heart Foundation has been important to me for a while, since learning that they fund research into all heart and circulatory diseases. This includes stroke, heart disease and vascular dementia. This means it researches everything that’s affected me personally - my Dad had a stroke in 2019, family members suffered dementia, and my nephew was born with a heart condition
However, raising money for the British Heart Foundation feels more poignant than before. In the midst of my training, on 20th November, we lost my wonderful Uncle John. He first had a heart attack in 2009 and underwent a quadruple bypass. It was later found that he had a tear in his aorta, which the Doctor’s described as leaving him as a ‘ticking time bomb’ as they could not operate on it. Due to this, he developed poor blood flow to his legs, and he had further surgery in 2011 to improve blood flow. He then suffered a brain bleed in 2020 where he was in a coma and Doctors didn’t think he would make it. Against all the odds, he did with no serious neurological side effects. However, his health steadily declined after this and he found it more and more difficult to do everyday tasks without being out of breath. Although we all knew anything could happen at any time, it was still a devastating shock when he passed. He had overcome so much since that first heart attack, and maintained his bubbly and joking personality throughout.
The research into conditions like the ones Uncle John suffered from are so important - I've been lucky enough to be invited to see first-hand the research that is being funded by the BHF at Manchester University and it really is incredible.
I wholeheartedly support this charity as they do so much good that a lot of the general public do not realise. It’s not just research, they also created the RevivR programme that teaches you how to perform CPR at home with a pillow in 15 minutes! Each year over 30,000 people have an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest in the UK, with less than one in ten surviving - giving CPR and using a defibrillator can more than double someone’s chance of survival.
I will be running those 26.2 miles in honour and memory of my Uncle John and I would be so grateful to anything anyone can donate towards this worthwhile cause.
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Target
£3,750
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Raised so far
£9,638
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Number of donors
121
My Story
I'm running the London Marathon for the British Heart Foundation in memory of my Uncle John.
The British Heart Foundation has been important to me for a while, since learning that they fund research into all heart and circulatory diseases. This includes stroke, heart disease and vascular dementia. This means it researches everything that’s affected me personally - my Dad had a stroke in 2019, family members suffered dementia, and my nephew was born with a heart condition
However, raising money for the British Heart Foundation feels more poignant than before. In the midst of my training, on 20th November, we lost my wonderful Uncle John. He first had a heart attack in 2009 and underwent a quadruple bypass. It was later found that he had a tear in his aorta, which the Doctor’s described as leaving him as a ‘ticking time bomb’ as they could not operate on it. Due to this, he developed poor blood flow to his legs, and he had further surgery in 2011 to improve blood flow. He then suffered a brain bleed in 2020 where he was in a coma and Doctors didn’t think he would make it. Against all the odds, he did with no serious neurological side effects. However, his health steadily declined after this and he found it more and more difficult to do everyday tasks without being out of breath. Although we all knew anything could happen at any time, it was still a devastating shock when he passed. He had overcome so much since that first heart attack, and maintained his bubbly and joking personality throughout.
The research into conditions like the ones Uncle John suffered from are so important - I've been lucky enough to be invited to see first-hand the research that is being funded by the BHF at Manchester University and it really is incredible.
I wholeheartedly support this charity as they do so much good that a lot of the general public do not realise. It’s not just research, they also created the RevivR programme that teaches you how to perform CPR at home with a pillow in 15 minutes! Each year over 30,000 people have an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest in the UK, with less than one in ten surviving - giving CPR and using a defibrillator can more than double someone’s chance of survival.
I will be running those 26.2 miles in honour and memory of my Uncle John and I would be so grateful to anything anyone can donate towards this worthwhile cause.
