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I am running my first ever Half Marathon for The Disabilities Trust. I will be running the Simplyhealth Great Birmingham run, Half Marathon, which is taking place on the 13th October 2019.

The Disabilities Trust is a leading charity providing high quality care, support and rehabilitation for people with complex physical disabilities, autism, acquired brain injury and learning disabilities.

I am running for The Disabilities Trust, for my brother, Andrew. He had an accident many years ago, on the 2nd August 1999. Andrew was fixing a friends computer and sadly was electrocuted. Due to the severity of the shock, Andrew lost consciousness. His friend’s partner noticed something was wrong and started CPR on Andrew, whilst Andrew’s friend called the emergency services. The Air Ambulance was sent immediately. They managed to get Andrews’s heart beating again, but in the air ambulance, it stopped again for a second time. Once they got to the hospital, they managed to get Andrews heart back beating again. His heart stopped for 20 minutes in total that day, which starved the brain of the oxygen it needed to survive.

Through the coming minutes, hours, days, weeks ahead, there were complications and as a result they put Andrew in an induced coma.

Many years have passed since that day and there have been many hurdles along the way,

Andrew is home and lives within our family. He is looked after by family members and carers offer some support. This was only able to happen because of all of the people behind the scences who provide fantastic support, similar to the people at The Disabilities Trust.

Andrew’s condition is known as Hypoxic Brain Injury, it is a type of brain injury that occurs when there is a disruption in supply of oxygen to the brain. The brain relies on a constant supply of oxygen to survive. Consciousness can be lost within 15 seconds, and damage to the brain begins after about four minutes without oxygen.

I want to raise money for The Disabilities Trust, to help people in a similar situation and the people that matter to all of us.

Please donate as little or as much as you can to support this charity and also to motivate me on those long and lonely runs! I don’t think I realised just how tough training to run a half marathon would be, or how much it would take over my life. I really appreciate everyone’s support and I hope to see as many of your faces as possible on the Day of the Simplyhealth Great Birmingham run.

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