A Stockport man whose father had battled heart and circulatory diseases will be scaling three of the highest peaks in the UK to raise funds for the British Heart Foundation (BHF).
Michael Campbell was devastated when his dad, Ted, died in January 2020.
Ted had previously suffered several heart attacks, which required a quadruple heart bypass, and had also experienced a stroke.
His health deteriorated and, after a fall in late 2019, Ted required further support from a care home. When his oxygen levels suddenly dropped, the retired banker was admitted to hospital.
Medics found that Ted had contracted pneumonia, but despite their best efforts, there was nothing that could be done to save him, and he sadly passed away in January 2020.
“Dad had been through the works, but he would always fight back each and every time,” said Michael, aged 26.
“He was the greatest man I’ll ever know and a real dedicated family man. He was well thought of and had lots of friends. We had to put out an extra five rows of chairs at his funeral to accommodate everyone.
“It was devastating to lose him and as a family we all struggled.”
Ted had been married to wife Lesley for over 30 years and had six children and five grandchildren. The avid Manchester City FC fan was aged 79 when he died.
The impact of losing Ted didn’t hit Michael until a few months later, when the country went into lockdown due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Michael added: “During lockdown, I had more time to think. I was on furlough from my job in IT services and the grief hit me like a ton of bricks.
“I started drinking more and even when the lockdown rules were lifted, I just wanted to be alone. I got to August and I had never felt so low. I felt awful about what I was doing to myself and my family. That’s when I realised I needed to do something about it.”
Michael opened up to his family and friends about how he felt, and was encouraged to make positive changes to his lifestyle.
The former Priestnall School student decided to go sober and became more active, before deciding to turn the impact of losing his dad into a positive challenge in his memory.
Along with friends, Michael decided to tackle the Yorkshire Three Peaks last year in aid of the BHF – and is now gearing up to complete the UK Three Peaks Challenge on 18th June, also in aid of the charity.
The challenge will see Michael scale Ben Nevis, Scafell Pike and Snowdon in 24 hours, walking 23 miles and climbing over 10,000 feet.
Money raised through sponsorship will help the BHF fund life saving research into heart and circulatory diseases, such as heart attack, stroke and vascular dementia, and their risk factors such as diabetes and high blood pressure.
“I’m more active than I ever have been, and the challenge in June has given me something to work towards,” said Michael.
“I’ve raised over £2,000 so far and have been blown away by the support. As heart and circulatory diseases have impacted my family, it means so much to be raising money towards research which could help others affected by these conditions.”
In the North West of England, around 910,000 people are living with heart and circulatory diseases – and shockingly, every 30 minutes, someone in the region dies from one of these conditions.
Katherine Stybelski, BHF’s Fundraising Manager, said: “It is touching that Michael is turning his tragedy into something positive and we are so grateful that he has decided to carry out his challenge in aid of the BHF.
“We can only fund research to save and improve lives because of the generous donations of dedicated supporters like Michael. In addition to the devastating health impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, the financial impact has meant our funding for new research has halved this year alone, so the support of the public has simply never been more needed.”
