Welcome to the Helping Hearts Challenge – Dom and Cozzie’s series of adventurous challenges to raise money for the coronary care and cardiology units at Southmead Hospital in Bristol, a place where love, kindness and a little touch of medical magic give people their lives back.

My dad, Dennis Harris, had - we think - 12 heart attacks over the last 21 years, a quadruple heart bypass, countless other operations and more weeks and months in hospital than any of us can remember. Yet he still made it to his 80th birthday on September 11 last year, only sadly to pass away a few weeks later from cancer. That he lived for so long despite his major heart problems is without question down to the paramedics, doctors, surgeons and nursing staff in Bristol – at Southmead and Frenchay hospitals, and the Bristol Royal Infirmary – people who not only saved his life on many occasions, but also showed him the greatest kindness and care imaginable.

So now it’s time to give something back, to say thank you. Join us as we run, cycle, swim, trek and climb throughout the UK and beyond. Get your friends, family and work to sponsor you as you help us with Helping Hearts.

And please, dip into your pockets yourselves to make sure other people with heart disease get a second, third or even twelfth chance at life.

The challenges:

1. Human Race off-road 16k cross country run, Frimley, 26th January, 2013

2. Forest of Dean Half Marathon, 7th April, 2013

3. Bristol 10k run, 5th May, 2013

4. Eton Dorney Triathlon, 19th May, 2013

5. The Three Peaks challenge (Ben Nevis, Scafell Pike, Snowdon), 30th May - 1st June, 2013

6. Cycling Bristol to Paris, 10th - 12th July, 2013

7. TR24 Thunder run (24 hour team running race), 27th-28th July, 2013

8. Walking the length of Hadrian's wall, 21st - 25th August, 2013

9. Bristol half marathon, 15th September, 2013

10. Brathay Windermere Marathon, 18th May, 2014

11. Tough Mudder, Kettering, 12th July, 2014

12. Kayaking the River Wye, August Bank Holiday, 2014

13. Bristol half marathon, 21st September, 2014

To find out more, visit www.helpinghearts2013.wordpress.com