Team Tom II – CRY Bridges Walk 2009
Team Tom II ready to set out in July 2009 for its second CRY Heart of London Bridges Walk.
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The first screenings
The first free heart screenings for young people sponsored by Tom’s Fund were held over three days at Brentford Football Club in June 2009. After fund-raising for more than a year, around 300 people were tested as part of CRY’s first national screening tour.
Brentford’s then manager, Andy Scott, a CRY patron, supported the event. He was forced to stop playing football when diagnosed with a heart condition.
The event was covered by BBC Radio One’s Newbeat – read the full story at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/8125842.stm and at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/8125612.stm
Claire’s first book sale
Claire held her first fund-raising book sale for CRY at our home in Ealing in May, 2009.
Supported by friends and family, she raised around £1,300.
The CRY postcard campaign
CRY’s screening-based research programme revealed that far from the UK losing eight young lives a week to undiagnosed heart conditions – a terrible figure in itself – the number was actually at least 12.
CRY relaunched its postcard campaign in October 2008 to reflect this and Tom was among those featured. We still find looking at all the young faces on this postcard extremely upsetting.
Maybury Hillside Women’s Club
The Maybury Hillside Women’s Club in Surrey raised £200 for Tom’s Fund.
Tom’s grandmother, Margaret Prosser, pictured left, is a member of the group, which held raffles, bring-and-buys and a book sale to raise the money.
The club, which was formed for educational and social purposes, presented the cheque to Eddie Farrow, who received it on behalf of CRY, in March, 2009.
Life After Tom
A year after Tom’s death, Claire narrated a documentary for BBC Radio 4 – Life After Tom, made with the help of producer Linda Pressley.
We hope to be able to make the full documentary available in the future but you can hear excerpts here http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7666764.stm
You can also read more of Claire’s thoughts here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7664371.stm
One year on
To raise awareness of the heart-related risks facing young people, we marked the first anniversary of Tom’s death by placing an advert in the Tottenham programme for a match that fell on October 5.
This was a personal initiative by the family, no money from Tom’s Fund was used to pay for the advert.
Team Tom and our first Bridges Walk
Cardiac Risk in the Young, CRY, have held a Heart of London Bridges Walk every year since the summer of 2007. We walk to remember Tom and all those like him.
At the time of our first walk in July 2008, the eight bridges crossed symbolised the eight young lives believed to be lost every week to undiagnosed heart conditions. Now we know it’s at least 12.
“Team Tom” has walked to raise funds and awareness every year since then. We are grateful to the hundreds of people who have supported us over that period, many of whom have been with us every year.
