Run For Ally
Created by Nadia
17th March 2019
This event has closed
Story
The cause of Alessandro’s passing was probable Sudden Arrhythmic Death Syndrome (SADS). SADS is not fully understood but often involves electrical malfunctioning of the heart. At no time in his life did Alessandro display any symptoms of having a heart condition. Every week in the UK at least 12 young people die of undiagnosed heart conditions. In 1995 a charity called Cardiac Risk in the Young (CRY) was formed to address this. Since its formation CRY has been working to reduce the frequency of young sudden cardiac death. CRY supports young people diagnosed with potentially life-threatening cardiac conditions and offers bereavement support to families affected by Young Sudden Cardiac Death. It promotes and develops heart screening programmes and funds world leading medical research as well as specialist referral, screening and cardiac pathology services at leading UK hospitals. To honour Alessandro and to raise money for CRY more than 90 of Ally’s family and friends entered The Palace Half Marathon at Hampton Court on 17th March 2019; almost a similar number came along as supporters. The event and date was chosen as the closest to Ally’s birthday: he would have been eighteen on March 14th.Updates
Run For Ally Palace Half Marathon Hampton Court March 2019
29th July 2019We are delighted to say that Run For Ally raised more than £46,000 for CRY.
As Ally's parents our sincere thanks and appreciation go to everyone who donated and to all of Ally's friends and family who participated, as runners and as supporters. As well as raising an incredible amount of money we succeeded in creating awareness of cardiac risk in young people among other participants and supporters, many of whom, amazed by the sight of so many people wearing T shirts bearing Ally's image, asked who Ally was.
Thanks to Mandy Davies and others there are so many pictures of Run For Ally. There is only room for one here; this one sums up a happy, emotional and inspirational day. It's of Ally's Mum and two of his aunts, none of whom were runners before Run For Ally - but they all run regularly now! Other images can be viewed at https://spark.adobe.com/page/YsZe97mAVp2rs/?w=0_6857 (Copy and paste the link into the address bar, press return and it should open).
We are proud of the positive and powerful affect Ally has upon everyone who knew him or knows of his story. Our aim is to have a memorial and fundraising "Run for Ally" every year, including in 2020, and will keep this tribute site posted with plans and developments.
