Every week in the UK at least 12 young people die of undiagnosed heart conditions and to raise awareness of this a Sheffield based charity is hosting its second charity event on 31st March 2018.
Fancy Dress Touch Rugby Competition at Abbeydale Sports Ground, is helping to support young people between 14-35 to be checked for potential heart defects, followed by necessary treatment and recovery. The event raises money for Cardiac In The Young (CRY) who offer free heart scans for young people at local scanning events to help reduce the number of sudden deaths in young people.
Tom Speddings and Claire Bland set up the event in 2017 following the death of Claire’s partner, Matthew Wright, who died suddenly of a probable heart defect on 8th May 2016, just 10 days before his 28th birthday.
“Matt was an avid rugby fan and my team mate in the Sheffield RUFC 3rd team and we had also lost Darren O’Neil in 2015,” said Tom. “With these losses in mind, along with that of one of the U14 team due to heart issues in 2015, we decided to find a way to honour these players, raise awareness and raise money. ‘Fancy Touch’ was born, to help ensure no one else has to go through the same pain of losing friends and family due to heart defects that could be avoided.”
The 2017 Fancy Touch event was a great day and raised enough money to help CRY come to the club and test local young people for heart issues. This resulted in identifying 6 people who are all now getting treated and supported through CRY.
Sheffield local scanning days are organised by Elaine Ward, who has an overall memorial fund in the name of her son, Neil Ward, who passed away suddenly in 1992, aged 17. Elaine has been raising money through CRY in his name since 2014 and has organised 15 screenings so far, with over 1000 scans, with 4 more screenings arranged for later this year.
All are welcome at the event and with Fancy Dress Rugby Tournaments taking place throughout the day in addition to BBQ, Sweet shop, bouncy castle (adult friendly), raffle, silent auction and use of the bar and facilities at Abbeydale Sports Club, a great day out is available for all the family.
Team sign up will be from 11am, with a warm up and large game to learn the rules and get into the swing of things before the tournaments begin. All ages and abilities welcome, we range from total beginners to weekly rugby players.
Donations in all forms are welcome, to the JustGiving page - https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/fancytouch2018
To enter a team, or for more details, email tom@fancytouch.com, or visit our website www.fancytouch.co.uk.
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