Kerry-Anne blessed my life for nearly 6 years.  She was my soul mate, my best friend and everything I could wish for – I completely adored her.  Life was perfect whenever we were together.  Kerry-Anne was radiantly beautiful, had a wonderful smile and the most amazing blue eyes.  However, it was her loving and caring nature that touched deepest – she was extremely thoughtful and kind, always on hand to help others, and loved babies and kids.  Children sensed her warmth and affection, and were drawn to her, forming an immediate bond (needless to say, she was the babysitter of choice for family and friends throughout her life) – she would have without doubt been the best and most natural mum.  Kerry-Anne had the greatest wit and humour about her.  Kerry-Anne, a wonderful young lady with an exuberance and fun loving nature that truly touched all who had the pleasure of knowing her.

In the early hours of 27 November 2008, and having been unsettled throughout the night, Kerry-Anne told me she was going into the spare bedroom for a while to allow me to get some sleep before our early rise for work.  Shorty after, I went to check on her and was alarmed to find her lying on her front in the lounge.  Initially, and perhaps somewhat confused at the time, I thought she must have been lying in this position to be most comfortable for her pain.  This was not the case and the period that followed will forever be the worst of my life.  Kerry-Anne had collapsed and was taking away from us by an undiagnosed heart condition.  Kerry-Anne was age 30, healthy, and entering an exciting stage in her life with all our plans and dreams to fulfil.  The sudden and unexpected nature of her death makes things very difficult to come to terms with and her absence has left a massive void in our lives.  A year has passed and it remains hard to believe that it is real and has actually happened to us when our world was perfect.

As you may know, I originally planned to take up the challenge of the London Marathon in 2010.  However, just when I thought my training programme could not be going any better, and perhaps due to a combination of over enthusiasm and a lack of experience, shin splints brought my efforts to an abrupt halt.  In addition, the osteopath had diagnosed me with being flat footed and heavy weight bearing to the left (i.e. essentially she was telling me that I had a rubbish body, not biomechanically made for competing head to head with the Kenyans and Ethiopians – in retrospect, perhaps this was a little ambitious!).  Anyway, the osteopath did finally agree to provide me with a new body, on the condition that I take more care of it.  I am therefore back in training, though this time I have a greater appreciation of how hard and soon I can push myself (head and body are more aligned).  My fitness regime therefore incorporates weird stuff like yoga and body pump (a little scary, as I am a bit outnumbered by females in these classes, and I keep getting told off by the instructor for getting the moves wrong) in a quest to keep the new body a little more supple.  CRY have kindly secured my place for the London Marathon in 2011 (this time, I will be running – no matter what!).  I also intend to run a host of half marathons in 2010, plus the habitual London to Brighton Bike Ride in June, to facilitate my efforts for the big one in 2011!  Everyone is also welcome to come and support this CRY event in memory of Kerry-Anne: www.justgiving.com/cryfootballfives

Cardiac Risk in the Young (CRY) is working hard to diagnose similar conditions to Kerry-Anne’s, through campaigns to raise awareness of Sudden Death Syndrome (SDS) and encourage proactive screening of young people.  It offers help and support to those who have suffered a loss, provides medical information, carries out a nationwide mobile cardiac screening and ECG testing programme and contributes to medical research.  SDS in young people is generally not a result of coronary heart disease, rather a heart abnormality, which if diagnosed through screening, can be managed and treated effectively (e.g. through the use of implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs) - which are activated by a sudden increase in heart rate).  I would be grateful if you took the time to visit the CRY website (http://www.c-r-y.org.uk/medical_conditions.htm) to gain an appreciation of their importance.

I am sure that Kerry-Anne would be pleased that any money raised was going to such a worthy cause, helping to prevent the immense pain and suffering caused to families and friends by the sudden death of a young person.  All donations will therefore be directed to CRY through the Kerry-Anne Offord Memorial fund.  Do please forward this webpage onto anyone you think may be interested to learn more about SDS and CRY.

Kerry-Anne was very special and we all miss her desperately.  She will always remain in our hearts and forever dearly loved.

Many thanks for your support.

Gary xx 

"What we have once enjoyed we can never lose. All that we love deeply becomes a part of us”

If you would like to personally take part or organise an event to help us raise funds for the Kerry-Anne Offord Memorial fund in support of CRY or would like more information about CRY and SDS, do please let me know.

gary_horn@hotmail.com

07887 568322