Jamie Gavin, another of our former BBC Colleagues, is taking part in the Greater Manchester marathon to raise money for Tom’s Fund – giving us two runners in the same event!
It will be a first marathon for Jamie, who works in BBC Sport, and he said: “It really is a privilege to be able to do something to help in whatever small way, and to run for Tom, and it will genuinely spur me on the whole way round.
“Hopefully whatever I raise will mean a few more people can benefit from free heart testing and by raising awareness for CRY perhaps even save a life.”
Jamie said that his training had been tough on his knees but the last few weeks of his programme had been the best so he was hoping all would go well on the day.
He added: “”Claire has been such a massive inspiration to me and hundreds of other young journalists and to run in memory of her son Tom – and to raise money and awareness for CRY – will help me through all 26.2 miles.”
Claire said: “I am sure Jamie is going to succeed as he is a very determined person. When he learnt he had a BBC interview he flew back from his trip of a lifetime to Australia where he was watching the Ashes. Luckily he got the job! We wish him lots of luck.”
Ealing Eagle Christine Elliott has done a great job raising publicity for CRY – you can read about her marathon effort in the Ealing Gazette or online in Ealing Today here.
The number of young lives lost each week to undiagnosed heart conditions could be 16-18 rather than the currently estimated 12, CRY’s consultant cardiologist Professor Sanjay Sharma told Sky News this week.
Tom’s Fund has raised more than £75,000 since we began fund-raising in 2008, according to the latest accounts from CRY.
So that’s a whole heap of “thank yous” to everyone who’s run, climbed, sung, hiked, baked or supported us in any way over the years.
The result of your efforts is that since 2009 Tom’s Fund has been able to sponsor the free screenings of more than 1,000 young people aged between 14-35. We’ve already held a day of screenings this year and there are more to come.
It also means that we’re edging closer to our aim of raising £100,000 by the end of 2014 to mark what would have been Tom’s 21st. If we can achieve that, it will guarantee screenings in future years. If you’d like to help, whether as an individual, company or oganisation, please get in touch with us here.
CRY have carried out many tens of thousands of screenings. They say that 1 in 300 young people screened will be found to suffer from a potentially life-threatening condition. A further 1 in 100 will be shown to have a condition that is less serious but which could cause a problem later in life.
A fantastic effort by Chris Cockburn to reach the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro, raising more than £800 and a huge amount of awareness for Tom’s Fund and @CRY_UK
A brilliant effort by Ella Brown and Louise Kirk who sound as if they had a great time running the Bath half-marathon on March 2.
Huge thanks to them both and to everyone who supported them – they’ve raised a tremendous amount of awareness as well as funds.
Ella wrote: “Louise and I took on the mammoth task of running the Bath Half. 13.1 miles was a daunting task having never been regulars at the gym! It was a lot of fun, with a really great atmosphere on the day.
We’re so grateful for all the support we received from friends and family and have managed to raise over a thousand pounds, which was far above our original expectations.
Hopefully in running we managed to raise further awareness for a really fantastic charity and hope the money we have raised will help them continue their great work. We’ve definitely got the running bug now and are hoping to keep on running and raising money – and hopefully we’ve encouraged others to do the same!”
