Event 

I will be completing the Portugal Ironman in Cascais on the 15th October this is a Triathlon which consists of a 3.8km swim (in the Atlantic..) 180km cycle and finish with a Marathon this is a one day event and if im in the average should take 13 hours. Not sure id class myself as average with this been my first year but we will see on the 15th. But to share the love I have thought long and hard about a charity and CRY was the one after a couple of years of hearing more and more stories and sort of my own (below if you want a bed time read) this was a bit of a no brainer. please read below and visit the cry website linked to this page to see there amazing work and peoples stories. 

Every week in the UK at least 12 apparently fit and healthy young people die of undiagnosed cardiac conditions. With your donation, CRY can reduce the frequency of young sudden cardiac death (YSCD) by working with cardiologists and family doctors to establish good practice and appropriate screening facilities to promote and protect the cardiac health of our young. By supporting CRY you will help save young lives from these potentially fatal cardiac conditions. See how your support can help by visiting www.c-r-y.org.uk

For those who know I love to tell a story in twice as many words than what's needed but here's the story to the photo above and part of the reason why I have chose such an amazing to charity to fundraise for.

This photo was taken 03/10/19. I'm wearing a 24 hour tape to record my heart. The next day after handing this back I get a call asking if I can attend an appointment with the cardiologist (Which for the NHS is extremely fast and made me feel a tad uneasy). I arrived at my appointment where a Dr welcomed me in and explained there was an abnormality in my rhythm (and not my dancing but that is also very abnormal…). he said ”Tom you have a very low resting heart rate and during your sleep your heart occasionally skips a beat i.e flatlines a beat to then restart”. He then chucked the term 'sinus bradycardia' at me and drew a picture. I asked this doesn’t sound fantastic news and he said with a smile on his face “I'm glad some like yourself has walked in who's athletic and clearly sporty. He then goes on and says  'this can be a serious problem in certain populations and can be the early sign to serious cardiac issues which would require intervention such as medication, change in lifestyle or a pacemaker”. He then continues “but in your instance, we call it an ATHLETES heart and its perfectly fine and explained how the skips can be related to a highly efficient heart”  so obviously I tell everyone I have an athlete's heart…

But this could have very easily gone one of two ways I am lucky and very grateful to have received the news I did. If it had gone the other way based on the result I would of had the correct treatment going forward which without the test I would be none the wiser.  This goes to show how the information gained from such a quick and simple piece of equipment which can be accessed with CRY at a subsidized rate for cardiac screen. Working in sport and especially sport younger sport I hear far to often about cardiac events in elite and grass roots level sport. I would strongly recommend this for people ages 14-35. 

The goals of this amazing charity is Preventing young sudden cardiac deaths through awareness, screening and research, and supporting affected families.

I hope from this you can donate or even better go and get yourself screened go through the website and see wheres near you. 

Cheers 

Tom