On Saturday, Bexley Cricket Club commence their annual cricket week, but this year’s will be one with a difference.

Last September, their wicket-keeper, Ben Aldred, scored a man of the match 68 at Lord’s to help his team win the ECB National Club Championship. Soon after, he headed off to Australia for a cricket scholarship with the Darren Lehmann Cricket Academy.

Before joining up with the academy, he spent time in Perth with family, and it was there that his life changed. Whilst out for a walk near the beach with his uncle he suffered a cardiac arrest.

His uncle started immediate CPR before a doctor saw what was happening and assisted, along with paramedics who were nearby having just left another incident. The Kent Second Eleven player was in a coma for 72 hours before making his recovery.

That prompted him, along with family and friends, to take an Australian first aid course through Perth’s Revive Emergency Medical Training and he hasn’t finished there.

Back in the UK, he has launched a Myheart fund to allow local cricketers in the area the opportunity to be screened by CRY (Cardiac Risk in the Young) with their usual ECG plus an Echocardiogram.

Along with other fundraising events organised by him, father Dan, mother Donna, brother Jack, and his best friend George, a non-stop static bike ride has been organised to last throughout the entire cricket week with the virtual route visiting each of the 18 county cricket grounds in England and Wales.

The event starts on Saturday when the Kent Premier League leaders, Bexley, host Sevenoaks Vine at Manor Way.

CRY’s representative, Paul Daniels (who lost his son Ben in 2011, an Old Elthamians Cricket Club player aged 15, to a heart attack) will be present when Ben launches the ride in the tea interval.

It is also Ladies Day so a good turnout is expected. Support for the Aldred families’ activities comes from other cricket clubs as well as Bexley, including Bexleyheath, where Ben started his cricket journey, and Bromley.

Donna Aldred said about Ben: “He is going to Loughborough University in September but he plans to return to Australia at some point,”

That is for the future. In the meantime, he is concentrating on trying to reach, and exceed, his fund raising target of £20,000 plus playing cricket for Bexley and Kent.

Details of how to donate and support can be located on:

https://www.justgiving.com/page/donna-aldred-1683726830926.

Picture supplied by Steve Griggs.