On Thursday 29th February, at CUCF’s normal weekly walking football session at the JobServe Community Stadium between 5pm-6pm, we hosted a fancy dress walking football tournament where participants were encouraged to get their friends and family to sponsor them to dress up for the session, to fundraise for the British Heart Foundation (BHF). So far, the participants have managed to raise an amazing £1,187.
The BHF has helped halve the number of people dying from heart and circulatory disease in the UK but sadly everyday hundreds of people lose their lives. It's only thanks to support from groups of people like our walking footballers that the BHF can create new treatments and discover new cures. £24 pays for two hours of research by an early career scientist.
The event was organised by Josh Parsons who is the Fundraising Manager for the BHF in Essex and Ed King who is the Head of Health and Inclusion at CUCF. We spoke to Josh about the money that has been raised so far, he said,
“We originally set a target of £300, which has been completely smashed! The group have managed to raise £1,187, which is incredible. I want to say a massive thank you from the BHF to CUCF’s walking footballers for raising an amazing sum of money which will go towards funding lifesaving medical research to beat one of the world’s biggest killers”.
Someone who has benefitted from the lifesaving research that the BHF conducts is one of our walking footballers, Phil. In April 2023, Phil suffered a cardiac arrest after competing in a walking football tournament.
By chance, he chose to drop in on his sister on the way home, where he collapsed and went into cardiac arrest. His sister immediately performed CPR until the paramedics arrived 4 minutes later, brought him round and rushed him to Basildon hospital, saving his life.
Phil is now back playing the sport he loves weekly and without critical research from the BHF, this would not have been possible. We spoke to Phil about how important he thinks that the work the BHF does is, he said,
“The work of the BHF is so important. Having the BHF at our walking football session to demonstrate and teach CPR was so valuable. One of the statistics I learnt after my recovery was that only 1 in 10 people in the UK survive a cardiac arrest when it happens outside of a hospital. If more people learn CPR life chances can be improved.
My heart condition is genetic. Sadly, my brother died 5 years ago from cardiac arrest because he was alone in the house. I was lucky that I chose to visit my sister who immediately performed CPR and that the paramedics were already close by. Another critical role of the BHF is providing emotional support for families and bystanders affected by these traumatic events.
I’m up and about playing football, golf and since my recovery, I have joined the BHF Patient Advisory Group, reviewing research proposals from a patient perspective and playing a small part in helping future generations benefit from new solutions.”
If you are interested in contributing to the walking football fundraiser for the BHF, this can be done via this link - https://www.justgiving.com/page/cucf-1706700736288
If you are interested in coming to our CUCF walking football sessions, we have two sessions that take place weekly. These are:
- Thursday evenings between 5pm-6pm at the JobServe Community Stadium which can be booked here – https://colchester-united-cf.classforkids.io/term/510
- Friday lunchtimes between 12pm-1pm at Shrub End Community and Sports Centre (CO2 9BG) which can be booked here – https://colchester-united-cf.classforkids.io/term/470
For more information about walking football either visit https://www.cu-fc.com/cucf/our-programmes/health-wellbeing/walking-football/ or email cucf@colchesterunited.net
