The route involved
crossing 8 London Bridges - Golden Jubilee, Westminster, Hungerford,
Waterloo, Blackfriars, Millennium, Southwark and London - with each
bridge representing one of the eight young sudden cardiac deaths
that occurs each week in the UK. We hope to raise at least
£80,000 from this event.
Participant Wayne
Griffiths rounded up everyone at the bandstand for a welcome speech
by CRY Founder and Chief Executive, Alison Cox. This was followed by
Kathryn singing a couple of beautiful songs, despite having had very
little sleep the previous night.
Kirk Douglas, a
personal trainer and nutritionist, then led the entertaining and
motivational warm up. This proved extremely popular with everyone.
It was another
emotional day, particularly for the vast majority who were taking
part in memory of a young relative or friend.
There were also a
number of people who were taking part because they felt it was a
good cause and wanted to support CRY; and some participants who were
supporting young people who had been diagnosed with a heart
condition.
As
well as the personalised back signs provided by CRY, some families
also chose to have photographs printed on their T-shirts.
The walk was in
memory of all the young people who have died suddenly due to
undiagnosed heart conditions, but participants on the day were
particularly remembering the following people:
Philip Abraham; Georgie Bagnall;
Iris Bagnall; Ray Bagnall; Mathew Blease; Katrina Brown; Robert
Burns; Andrew Cannon; Frank Carber; Tom Clabburn; Charlie Curtis;
Ryan Darby; Fred; John Lawrence Dick; Megan Dicken; Rajan Singh Dosanjh; Adam Drawbridge;
Andy Forbes; Elsa Giquel; Ted Goodyear; Leanne Haddrell; John Paul
Hawkins; James Norman Ashley Hill; Will Holden; Jonathan Hooper; Kira
Huckle; Lisa Johnson; Matthew Kamis; Prof Pat Rachael Langley; Tasha Liddle; Martyn
Luckett; Jack Maddams; Jonny Malpas; James “Slim“ Markham; Nigel Masterman;
Wayne McCormack; Hayley Jane McDonald; Charlie Morettes; Orlaith
Murphy; Paul Parker; James Patrick Patterson; Christopher John Razey;
Jake Riley; Alex
Roberts; Sharda Sharma; Jon Shaw; Laura Ann Side; Sarah Simpson;
Kevin Smart; Nicola Swaysland; Paul Sykes; Gareth Llewellyn
Thomas; Dylan Christopher Thompson; Scott Thurlow; Hannah Turberville;
Dan Vavasour; Carl Wiggins; Matthew Wilkins; David
Williams; James Wood.
In addition, some of
the walkers stated that they were walking in memory of Dad, Daddy
and Mum.
Once
again we had teams and individuals from around the UK and Ireland
taking part to raise awareness and funds for CRY.
CRY would like to say
"well done" and "thank you" to Kathryn Harries for leading the walk;
David Walliams for agreeing to sign a letter to the press inviting
people to take part; and to all the participants who made the event
such a successful and positive day.
We would also like to
thank the following companies and organisations for their
sponsorship and support:-
Westminster City
Council (especially the events team and the Victoria Embankment
Gardens Parks Office); St Martins Property Consultants and CB Richard Ellis Management Services for donating
Victoria Embankment Gardens and Hays Galleria;
Foresters for sponsoring the event and providing goody bags; Chubb
Insurance for help with securing Hays Galleria and for making a
donation to cover all the drinks on they day as well as the staff
and volunteer refreshments.
Thanks as well to
all CRY
staff
who helped with admin and on-the-day support for the event, and also
to the following volunteers who helped with marshalling,
distributing drinks, making the punch, picking up and delivering
drinks, registration, handing out certificates and inflating
balloons:
Martin
Appleby; Nicky Appleby; Helen Armstrong; Adrian Buckland; John and
Pat Dennington; Colm Dolan; Kirk Douglas; Arti Giani; Mark and
Marcia Hearne; Jim and Barbara Holland; Jo Packard; Paul and
Christine Rumley (and Jess, their border terrier puppy); Koula Louki;
Priyanka Sharma; Natasha Suggit; Paul Vickery; Dave and Sue Walton;
Gerry Wright.
Thank
you to all the participants who agreed to help with media coverage.
Thanks to everyone’s help we were able to secure two national
newspaper articles and 76 regional articles.
We are
very pleased with the number of post-event feedback forms received -
138 forms so far, on behalf of 250 participants. If you have not
sent your feedback form to us yet then it is not to late and we
would appreciate you sending this to us as soon as possible.
