It's been 30 years since I lost my dad to heart failure. We were both young. 

He was a 43-year-old young man. 

I was a 10-year-old young boy.  

As I turned 43, and older now than he eternally will be, I wanted to share a bit more of myself  to raise money for the British Heart Foundation in the hope that my story might help a few others. 

I remember my dad being hooked up to machines. I know now that he knew the odds were stacked against him in his final few days. His final words to me are etched on my consciousness and are some of my most precious possessions.

I don't want anyone else to feel like he did, or how I felt in the days, years and decades since. 

I'm grateful to have this opportunity to honour his life. To have had the space to think more about him and the life that I've had that he didn't get to see. 

I'm hopeful that the money I raise will change someone's life. I've tried to get the message out there that heart disease does not need to be a death sentence anymore. It does not need to hang over a family like it did with mine. 

43 was the age that 10-year-old me lost his daddy. But now 43-year-old me is when that kid became older than his old man, got into the best shape of his life, ran two marathons and raised some money to change the story for someone else.

No amount you can donate is too small, and every penny will help fund lifesaving research into cutting-edge research with the power to rebuild, regrow and repair damaged heart tissue and blood vessels.

Your donation, quite simply, is going to help improve and save the lives of people living with heart and circulatory disease, such as heart failure so less families are affected by this horrible, yet preventable disease ❤️