Places are still available for one of Chislehurst’s best known annual fundraisers, Why Not Run which takes place on Sunday.

The 2014 benefactors have been revealed as being national charity, Cardiac Risk in the Young (CRY).

The event (which this year will take place on Sunday 11 May in the grounds of Farringtons School) will be raising funds for CRY via the locally based and well-known Ben Daniels Memorial Fund.

Ben tragically died in March 2011 from an undiagnosed heart condition whilst playing football, aged just 15. Since Ben’s sudden death, supporters of his memorial fund (which was established by his parents Paul and Helena, from Bickley) have continued to work tirelelessly, raising money to host specialist screening sessions in the local area to test as many children and young people as possible.

Every week, 12 young (aged 35 and under) people lose their lives to sudden cardiac death in the UK – a statistic that is believed to be a conservative estimate.

Now in its third year, Why Not Run is a charity fun run for all the family, which raises money for local children’s and young people’s charities. Set up by the Head of Junior PE at Farringtons School, Lavinia Long, the day offers a range of running events and distances for all ages and abilities – and in the past, has rasied up to £8,000 for its nominated charity.

Organiser, Jackie Baker, says; “In addition to raising funds for this fantastic charity, we are also hoping to raise awareness of the importance of having young people screened. CRY states that in a staggering 80% of cases, these apparently healthy young people who die from young sudden cardiac death  – just like Ben Daniels – will have shown no previous sign of heart defects until it is too late. This is why CRY is so committed to the benefits of proactive screening.”

She adds; “We are therefore delighted to announce that all funds raised from this year’s Why Not Run event will go towards screening at least 100 young people at a session on 20 June 2014. Our Why Not Run participants, aged between 14 and 35, will also receive priority booking invitations to this screening.”

The Co-operative Funeralcare Group is supporting the Ben Daniel’s Memorial Fund by providing free race shirts for the first 300 runners to apply to help raise ongoing awareness for CRY.

Paul Daniels says; “I’m delighted Co-operative Funeralcare is supporting Ben’s fund in this way. It’s a little known fact that they do a lot of work in and around the community.”

“Whilst they offer free funeral care to the family of any young person under the age of 16 who tragically dies, their simple premise is that they would rather save young lives rather than meet the expense of burying them.”

“Hence their tremendous support for Ben’s fund and our simple aim of providing awareness that young people can be screened for their cardiac health  – and then to fund that screening.”

Heidi Lund, Community Relations Officer for The Co-operative Funeralcare in South London, said: “We are very proud to be able to show our support to the ‘Why Not Run’ event.”

“The awareness and fundraising that the Ben Daniels Memorial Fund and Cardiac Risk in the Young (CRY) will receive through this is invaluable and we are very honoured to be part of something so directly beneficial to the health of teenagers and young adults.”

The Ben Daniels Memorial Fund has raised over £90,000 to support CRY’s pioneering screening programme (which now tests around 14,000 young people every year). As a result of Paul’s efforts, around 1,000 local, young people have been screened over the past 3 years, in memory of Ben.

Chief Executive and Founder of CRY, Alison Cox MBE, says; “Paul’s fundraising support and ongoing awareness work for CRY has been absolutely tremendous over the past few years and his efforts have helped to fund the screening of hundreds of local people through Ben’s Fund.”

“It is great to see that he is working closely with other local fundraisers who have got ‘right behind’ our cause and are equally committed to supporting further screening in the area.”

“On behalf of CRY, I would like to thank everyone who is taking part and we really hope everyone has a great day!”