Bottesford man to run marathon in Hamburg to raise money for British Heart Foundation in memory of sister-in-law
A keen runner is heading to Germany to take part in a marathon challenge to raise money for charity in memory of his sister-in-law.
James Marshall, 55, from Bottesford, will take part in the Hamburg Challenge on April 23, to raise money for the British Heart Foundation.
This is in memory of his sister-in-law Linda Marshall, who died of a cardiac arrest in November last year.
James is raising money for BHF as it was one of the charities chosen by Linda's family for donations at her funeral.
He said: "I’d been thinking about doing a marathon and now I thought I’ve found the cause.
"That’s when I signed up for the Hamburg Marathon, booked my flights, booked my hotel and it snowballed from there.”
Linda died aged 57, leaving behind husband William, James brother, and twin 15-year-old boys Max and Harrison.
On the day Linda collapsed in November, James said: "I got the call to tell me that Linda had had a cardiac arrest and been taken to Truro Hospital by Air Ambulance.
“At that point in time my brother told me her heart had been restarted and was beating so we all hoped for the best and thought it would just be a long, slow road to recovery.
“But two or three days later he phoned again and said he needed me and our other brother Andrew to go down to help him. So we went and got the full story that she had suffered brain hypoxia.
“The critical care unit had withdrawn life support – her heart was beating, her lungs were working properly but to all intents and purposes she was at the end of her life. Twelve days later, she passed away.
“It was absolutely devastating – less than a week earlier she had been the major bread winner in the house, the mum, the banker, everything to her three boys. It was tragic."
James has chosen to run the Hamburg challenge as it was the city where he lived and worked when the "fitness bug took over" and he first got into running.
In 2014, he ran the Hamburg half marathon and a year later the Rome marathon. After this he put away his running shoes for several years.
Paula Scaife, local British Heart Foundation fundraising manager, said: “Tragic stories like this where a death comes so suddenly out of nowhere and has such a terrible impact on so many people are a good reminder about why BHF research is so important.
“Thank you to James for raising money for this cause – around 110,000 people are living with heart and circulatory disease in Leicestershire alone, which also kills more than one in four people in the county.
“This goes to show how vital the support is we get from people like James, prepared to go that extra mile (or 26) to help us get closer to our aim of beating heartbreak forever."
Anyone can donate to James's Just Giving page at www.justgiving.com/fundraising/james-marshall69.
Alongside fundraising for the British Heart Foundation, he is also helping to promote the charity's RevivR app, an innovative tool which teaches CPR in just 15 minutes using only a mobile phone and a cushion.
