3 years ago this month my little sister collapsed suffering a cardiac arrest at the age of only 23. She was rushed to St Georges hospital and spent several days in an induced coma whilst we all anxiously waited to understand if and how she would recover. Thankfully she woke up and slowly over the next few weeks her mental and physical capacity returned. A lot of investigations followed and the doctors discovered she was suffering from a genetic arrhythmia and subsequently she had an ICD fitted to help manage her condition. Since then she has made a brilliant recovery and we are so thankful.

As it was a genetic condition several family members were tested and I was diagnosed with the same issue and following advice also had an ICD fitted. It is often not until you are affected by something like this that you understand the prevalence of such a disease and I was saddened to hear that in the UK at least 12 young people die every week alone from undiagnosed hear t conditions. CRY does fantastic work in raising awareness of this issue along with striving to reduce this number of avoidable deaths. It was for this reason I wanted to run a half marathon to acknowledge the 3 year anniversary of my sister’s arrest and raise awareness and funding for the great charity CRY.

So I signed up for the Ealing Half Marathon several months ago and suddenly I woke up and it was Sunday 25th September-race day! Feeling a bit nervous but keen to give it my best shot I lined up with the other 6,999 runners at the starting line. The weather was kind and the atmosphere was amazing-it was great to see so many supporters lining the route to cheer everyone on. It was quite a hilly course (something I had avoided in my training!) but I kept up a steady pace as best I could. At mile 2 and mile 12 I spotted a supporter in a CRY T-shirt which was a great morale boost. The last couple of miles were a struggle but it was well worth pushing through and crossing the finishing line which was an absolutely amazing feeling (despite the achy legs)! After collecting my medal I met up with friends and family for a well-earned Sunday lunch!