As many of you will know, my younger brother Alex received urgent and lifesaving open-heart surgery at the Royal Brompton Hospital 3 years ago. Unbeknown to us, he had been living with a congenital Atrial Septal Defect and collapsed mitral valve and had been on borrowed time for years. His fitness put him in a good position to cope with his failing heart, but also masked the symptoms for an extremely long time. The reality of what was likely imminent if this hadn't been spotted in time simply doesn't bear thinking about.

Cardiac Risk in the Young are a charity that offer subsidised or free heart screening to young people aged 14-35, including an ECG and echocardiogram. They are easy to access and I really do urge everyone, particularly those involved in sport, to have their heart screened.

For context... in Italy, the cardiac screening offered by Cardiac Risk in the Young is compulsory for all under-18s involved in competitive sport. Their incidence of young sudden cardiac death is 80% less than ours in the UK. 80%...!

Every week in the UK, 12 apparently fit and healthy young people under 35 die from an undiagnosed cardiac condition. We CAN change this.

Since Al's surgery, we have run a series of half-marathons/marathons/ultramarathons between us and together. We have raised a total of £13,400 and would absolutely love to hit our goal of £15,000 this year through this London Marathon fundraising page. To think that our initial goal was £500 and we are now thinking about these numbers is crazy to us, but we will continue to do everything we can to raise awareness of the importance of getting young hearts checked.

Alex's health journey is far from over and he will require more surgical work and close monitoring throughout his life, but he is back to what he loves and actually ran a half marathon himself last week (revision avoidance on a whole new level!) which is testament to the progress he has made recently.

We have the doctors at the Royal Brompton to thank for everything, and I will never be able to express my appreciation enough for them saving the life of my brother and best friend. As they have said many times, the best way we can show them our thanks is to promote this screening, ensuring children make it to them in the hospital with enough time for them to fix things, rather than it being too late.

We take children for eye tests, ear tests, dental check-ups and more... Please add hearts to that list. 

Thank you as always,

Maddy and Alex xx