Joseph passed away whilst out on a pre-season cross country run with his football Club on 5th July 2011.
There was no defibrillator available and the time for an ambulance to reach him was sadly too long.
CPR was undertaken but proved to be unsuccessful.
Since that time we as a family of parents, 2 sisters and 2 brothers have fund raised and presented 7 defibrillators to local Derbyshire sports clubs and made every attempt to raise awareness of CRY’s aims and objectives.
Joe played to a good standard local football and cricket and also was a passionate supporter of Nottingham Forest FC.
His friends who are on the attached photographs are also Nottingham Forest FC fans.
Joe and these friends were also huge fans of ‘The Office’ TV programme and the lead actor Ricky Gervais.
The Office programme is based in Slough.
So Joe’s friends decided to remember Joe in a different and more relevant way this time.
A plan was hatched to run and row the equivalent of the distance from Slough to Spondon Cricket Ground (where Joe played 1st team cricket and indeed had played there since the age of 8) which is a distance of 117 miles.
A minimum of nine people were required to collectively run or walk the overall distance of 117 miles and in fact 15 people undertook the run/walk including his Mum (Sharon) and brother (Thom).
Then on returning to the cricket ground the group with help from other family members and friends set about 4 rowing machines to cover the 117 miles distance between Spondon and Slough.
The run started outside the Forest football ground at 9:20am and the rowing was finally completed at around 7:00pm.
A colossal feat by people ranging in age from 37 to 66 years..!!
This has been extremely well supported financially by a wide range of local people, to date a sum of £5,245 is listed on the Justgiving page.
This money will achieve the aim of his loyal friends and sponsor a screening day to be held in Spondon with the assistance of CRY for up to 100 young people aged between 14 and 35 years later this year hopefully.