On April 27th we hosted our first ‘CRYket Black Tie Dinner & Dance’ as part of our ongoing fundraising campaign to give young cricketers & other sports men & women in our area the chance to receive a full screening with an ECG & an echocardiogram.

Ben was lucky enough to survive his cardiac arrest in October 2022 due to the CPR administered by his uncle when he collapsed and the close proximity of an ambulance crew with a defibrillator. We discovered that he has an abnormality with one of his heart valves, which was apparent with an echo but not an ECG and he is now had treatment & is being monitored ….hence our mission to fully screen as many people as we can.

We had held a summer event in July 2023 where we kept a static bike going for 7 days, 24hrs a day during our club’s cricket week and we raised an astonishing £19,282 in a week but the Dinner & Dance surpassed all of our expectations as we managed to raise £10,010.98 on the night!

We hosted 130 guests and Danny Aldred, (Ben’s dad), opened the evening with some welcomes & thanks and then Ben gave a speech explaining how our first screening had gone and he also talked about how he is coping just over a year on. Finally Paul Daniels, a great supporter of CRY, who sadly lost his son Ben in 2011, explained a bit more about CRY as a charity and reiterated the importance of screening.

A great friend of ours, David Pask, acted as compere and got everyone involved in a game of ‘Higher or Lower’ and there was a raffle & silent auction. The food was exceptional with everyone enjoying a delicious 3 course meal and the DJ had everyone up on the dance floor as soon as the formalities were over.

As a family we had such a huge amount of support and help in getting this event off the ground and we were overwhelmed with the generosity of our guests…. and in response to popular demand we will be holding our 2nd Dinner & Dance on 3rd May 2025!

Meanwhile it is back to limbering up for this years static bike ride which will be taking place from 20th July to 27th July when we will hopefully be able to add to the fund and continue screening into 2026.