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Pedal power boosts funding for cardiac screening for young people

Pedal power boosts funding for cardiac screening for young people

Pedal power boosts funding for cardiac screening for young people

10 December 2015

Members of a charity cycle team who completed a tough five day ride through Germany have presented a cheque for £7,000 to one of the three charities chosen to benefit from their fundraising.


Hull based construction company PDR Construction, who join the annual Dransfield Properties charity bike ride team every year, have presented a cheque for £7,000 to C-R-Y (Cardiac Risk in the Young). The charity supports young people diagnosed with potentially life-threatening cardiac conditions, runs screening sessions throughout the UK, offers bereavement support to families, as well as continued research into the causes of YSCD (Young Sudden Cardiac Death).


The team decided to support the charity after one of their former colleagues, Graham Loncaster, lost his son Jamie (aged 13) in March this year to a rare and undetected heart condition.

Graham, his wife Jenny and eldest son, Ross have since set up Jamie’s Memorial Fund with C-R-Y, to raise awareness and funds to provide specialist screening days for children in the local area. The screening consists of an electrocardiogram (ECG), which looks at the electrical conduction pathways around the heart and can identify most cardiac abnormalities.


The donation made on behalf of the Dransfield Foundation and PDR Construction will allow C-R-Y to provide two full screening sessions.


The donation is part of the £50,000 raised by the 16-strong team of riders this year when they covered 431 miles cycling from Munich through to finish in Berlin back in September.


Lee Newsham, Finance Director of PDR Construction said: “We were determined to raise as much money as possible for C.R.Y and we are delighted that the Tour of Europe Team has raised enough money to allow C.R.Y to carry out two full screening sessions, which we know could potentially save young lives. In these last few months Graham and his family have shown amazing strength and courage, and we have nothing but admiration for their determination to raise awareness and funds in Jamie’s memory to help ensure other families do not have to go through what they have this year. 


Thank you to everyone who has donated towards this year’s ride and continued to support our fundraising efforts. We couldn’t have achieved this without your help.”


Graham Loncaster said: “Before Jamie died, we had not heard of Cardiac Risk in the Young, a charity established in 1995. The detailed research that they have carried out over the years confirms that AT LEAST 12 young people a week die from an unknown heart condition. A staggering 80% have no prior symptoms – just like Jamie.


In Italy, where screening is mandatory for young people in sport, the mortality rate has dropped by 89%. That is why screening of young adults (aged 14-35) in the UK is so vitally important. There is no NHS funded screening programme and that’s why your donations and the expertise of C-R-Y play such an important role. Up to 100 young people can be screened in one day at a cost of just £3,500 paid for from a Memorial Fund. 1 in 300 young people tested is diagnosed with a life threatening condition. If one young person is diagnosed as a result of the screening that Jamie’s Fund covers, then it will save another family and community from going through the heart-break that we have. Our aim is to fund 1,000 screening places within the next five years.


We are extremely grateful to all involved in the Munich to Berlin Cycle Ride and for the amazing amount of money they donated to the Jamie Loncaster Memorial Fund. A two day screening session will be held in May/June 2016 (exact date to be confirmed), at the school where Jamie was a pupil”.


To find out more please visit www.jamieloncaster.co.uk.


The team are now already busy planning the 2016 ride, which will take them from this year’s finish point in Berlin to finish in Copenhagen.


Cheque presentations to Bloodwise and Action Against Cancer, two of the other charities set to benefit from this year’s fundraising, are also being planned for early 2016.


The annual Tour of Europe ride was started in 2007 by PDR and Dransfield Properties taking a route from London to Paris. In the last eight years the riders have covered more than 2,600 miles through five different countries – since the annual ride was founded more than £350,000 has been raised for charity through the fundraising efforts of the team.


To see more pictures from the 2015 Tour of Europe please visit the PDR Construction and the Dransfield Properties websites at www.pdrconstruction.co.uk and www.dransfield.co.uk or you can like Team Dransfield on facebook or follow the cyclists on twitter @PDR_team and @teamdransfield


Picture shows:- Dave Maughan, Lee Newsham and Paul Dransfield of PDR Construction presenting the cheque to Graham Loncaster, Jenny Loncaster and Richard Fell of C-R-Y.


 

For further information, contact:

Public Relations Department, Dransfield Properties Ltd
Tel: 01226 360644
Email: pr@dransfield.co.uk