Calon Hearts Santa Dash
Calon Hearts’ Santa Dash will be taking place at Cardiff Bay on Sunday 4th December. Now in its 11th year, Santa Dash is one of the leading events in Cardiff’s festive calendar, with up to 1000 Dashers taking the 5k challenge around Cardiff Bay. Come along and join in the fun, starting at 10am with the Rock Choir performing, DJ, etc.
Blowing the starting whistle at midday will be Tim Rich, and here is Tim’s story:
My name is Tim Rich, I’m 61 years old and I race bikes, at age category level, for a local cycle race team. I would consider myself to be in the top quartile of cycle race competitors in South Wales and extremely fit from a cardiovascular perspective. In April 2022 I suffered a major cardiac arrest immediately after competing in a race at Maindy Stadium in Cardiff. I don’t remember very much of the day, let alone what happened to me during the incident. However, I do know that I was extremely fortunate and that a number of critical factors undoubtedly saved my life when my heart stopped.
Firstly, a combination of first responders, my team-mates, track officials and stadium staff had all received CPR training and delivered it immediately to me in a calm and courageous manner, in fact they never gave up and kept going until the team from Air Ambulance arrived a short while after to take over. I have no doubt though that the key to my survival was the fact that a mobile defibrillator device was available at the stadium and was engaged to help resuscitate me before the Air Ambulance Paramedics arrived. I have since found out that the defibrillator was donated by the charity Calon Hearts and that the chances of my surviving this situation was given at between 5 to 10% if the people and the equipment mentioned had simply not been there.
I consider myself an extremely lucky chap and I owe my thanks to all who were involved in saving my life on that April evening, including the work of Calon Hearts. Thanks to all these people, I continue to enjoy a full life with my family and friends, including continuing my passion of riding bikes (Maybe no more racing though!)
Calon Hearts works tirelessly to raise funds for heart health in Wales and to date has placed nearly 20,000 defibrillators across communities in Wales, trained nearly 80,000 people in CPR and defibrillator training and screened nearly 7,000 for potentially life-threatening heart conditions. Please help Calon Hearts continue this vital life-saving work. Donate to our Hearts of Gold campaign and help shine a light for lost love-ones this Christmas. www.calonhearts.org/hearts
Weatherman Derek Brockway and Sue Charles will be there at the Santa Dash start and we are told the weather forecast for this weekend is dry but turning cold, so wrap-up warm and join us at Cardiff Bay on Sunday 4th!
Find out all you need to know on the Calon Hearts website!
