Thanks for visiting my page. I'm raising money for the British Heart Foundation's research and I'd be so grateful for your support. As many people visiting this page may know, the British Heart Foundation is a charity that holds a special place in my families hearts.
On the 9th of March 2004, my father, Neil Dinwoodie, suffered his first cardiac arrest whilst playing 5 aside football. After having no pulse for almost 20 minutes he was thankfully saved by his friends who performed CPR and then by the NHS staff who kept him in an induced coma for 3 days and inserted 3 stents.
We considered ourselves very lucky that day, and anyone who knew my Dad knew how seriously he took his health since that day. Unfortunately later on we were not so lucky. After celebrating my sister, Emma's, 25th Birthday in London, 2 days after returning from this family trip my Dad had another cardiac arrest (later diagnosed with ischemic heart disease). He died suddenly, and peacefully, at home on the 2nd of May 2018.
In August 2018, I left to go travelling, something I had already had planned previous to Dad's passing. It made no sense not to go, and wouldn't have been what my Dad would have wanted me to do. So off I went, and it gave me a lot of time to think and process (maybe a little too much time on some occasions). It was whilst I was on the other side of the world that I got to thinking that I had to find some sort of good from such a horrible situation. My Dad was such a healthy and active man (if he hadn't have been then we might have lost him 14 years earlier than we did), and it got me thinking of entering the Edinburgh Marathon in his memory.
Anyone that knows me well enough will know that I despise running unless there is a stick and ball involved. But I am looking forward to the challenge it will bring. But more so than anything else, I am running to raise money for the British Heart Foundation, because if running a marathon means that I can raise money that can help support a charity that could prevent another family going through the same suffering - well that seems like a pretty good reason to me!!
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. It's only thanks to support from people like us that the BHF can create new treatments and discover new cures. £24 could pay for two hours of research by an early career scientist, but every pound helps so please give what you can to help me hit my target.
Help me find the good in a bad situation. Thank you (and wish me luck).
