Hearts...We all have one. Whether you possess a kind one, a broken one, a poorly one, a restored one or have been gifted someone else's, a heart is the common denominator between us all and keeping it's beat going is something we need to stay alive.

In addition to the many blessings a heart affords us with, each and every heart also presents us with the universal problem of uncertainty. Whilst we can do many things to help our hearts tick over smoothly through diet, exercise and laughter, they undeniably every now and again, as my daughter would eloquently symbolise – put themselves on the naughty step by doing something silly, like stop beating.

Just over 2 years ago and whilst in our local park (in England) flying a kite with our friends and our children celebrating the purchase of our first home, I received the devastating (and I am sure difficult for my brother) phone-call that over in Greece, our Dad's heart had let him down and stopped beating. I cannot elaborate nor can I describe the day further but suffice to say it is and probably will remain in memory as one of the worst days of my life. As you can certainly imagine this day was even harder on the rest of my family who were there present during it all with an amplified sense of reality having witnessed this terrible life changing event. At this point though not particularly relevant, I have to add that I am immensely proud of my cherished family and for how they dealt with all both on the day and in the dawn of the post Dad era.

In writing this, I never intended to make for sad reading, those of you you know Spiros, my Dad, will know he was the life of the party, always smiled and lived life to the fullest. As I am sure he would have wanted, I choose to thank God for the 30 years he gave us together as opposed to spend my days wondering why he was taken so soon. Despite my best intentions however, there is to this day, one part pertinent to Dad's passing that still bothers me and I hope to address it through running the Brighton marathon in April 2018.

For those of you, like me who live in England, we go about our daily life blissfully unaware that a Defibrillator (the machine that has the power to kick-start a non-beating heart) can be found pretty much in the vicinity of anywhere you go. These Defibrillators, can be found in all public areas and as an employee for British Airways I can tell you that the airline carries one on every aircraft and it is no lie that they have saved many people when their heart for whatever reason at 38,000 feet suddenly stopped beating, or it has at least enabled these people to have a fighting chance towards survival. Those of you who know what I do for a living will know that I work at one of the largest airports in the World at Heathrow. I realised one day as I took a walk around the airport campus that at every point of that walk, I was no further than 250 yards to the closest Defibrillator and therefore no further than 250 yards away from that fighting chance. Since then and through a bit of research I now realise in England we are serious about Defibrillators and if you challenged yourself, you would find you are probably not that far from one yourself and I urge you to do so. I now regard this fact as an extremely fortuitous situation to be part of and so should you. This extremely fortuitous set-up of a Defibrillator on every corner so to speak, has played on my mind since Dad's passing. Let me be clear, the Greek Emergency response teams, like any emergency team in the developed world is amazing and does miracle work every day. As soon as they could, once they received the call alerting them, they were there to try and help my Dad but sadly they could not. From the day of Dad's funeral, it has played on my mind that Benitses (the Greek village I come from and were my dad passed away) doesn't enjoy the joys of a Defibrillator. I am not suggesting that Dad's fortune might have been any different but I hope that if I manage to raise the funds to place a Defibrillator in the village, the fortunes of others, just might be...

It is therefore that with hope in my heart and determination in my mind I have decided to run the Brighton Marathon in April 2018 in memory of my Dad Spiros. For me it is not just a focus on the event as during every mile of training, I hope to be at one with Dad and to think of all those beautiful years I was blessed in sharing with him. It is the very first time I am asking for people to sponsor me. Whether you can do so online, or through spare change in person, I promise you every penny will go towards a Defibrillator for the village of Benitses in memory of my Dad Spiros and should I fail to meet the financial target I have set, I also pledge to make-up the remainder finances required to fulfil this ambition. So it is with great hope, pleasure and thoughts of foreseeable blisters, that I leave you with this:

If you want to fix a broken heart, friends have got the best glue – so if you knew Spiros or someone who didn't have that fighting chance through a Defibrillator, I beg you to dig deep and support me in potentially saving another heart in his memory.