Story
Hello, thanks for visiting my page! As I'm sure many of you know, on April 8 2022 I lost my dad, Phil Newman, to sudden cardiac death. In a matter of minutes my life, and that of my entire family, was turned upside down and everything fell from beneath our feet. Having seen him laughing and joking just 48 hours prior when he had dropped me back at university to sit my finals, having to come to terms with living the rest of my life without one of my best friends and my biggest source of support was indescribably painful. My family lost a brother-in-law, an uncle, a son and his friends lost one of their best mates (and the best designated driver for pub nights!).
Dad was on his way to an artificial ski slope at the time, snowboard in hand and ready to hone his technique before training to be a snowboarding instructor in 2023. This is indicative of how physically fit he was for a 58 year old; he didn't smoke, barely drank, read health magazines on which vitamin supplements to take and gave teenagers a run for their money when on the snowboard (or so he kept saying..). His seemingly perfect health is what made this sudden heart attack all the more painful.
Therefore, I'm running the Cambridge Half Marathon for him, and to help fund research into heart and circulatory diseases, which cause a quarter of all deaths in the UK. The BHF has helped halve the number of people dying from heart and circulatory disease in the UK but sadly every day hundreds of people lose their lives.
Dad is the one who got me into running- he cheered me on when I ran the Cambridge Half last year in aid of Cancer Research and bought me a running watch for my 23rd birthday to aid with my training. Despite having run this race before, this will not be an easy run due to being mostly out of action from June-November due to a ligament injury. However, I am ready!!
Furthermore look to my 'Team Page' to see that I will not be running this Half Marathon alone. My incredibly supportive (and very competitive) boyfriend Kieran has also decided to run it with me and when I return to uni in January we are going to train together!
Whatever you feel you can give, or even if you can just share my page, it would mean so so much to me.
Thank you xxx