A MALVERN father-of-three has started his gruelling 140-mile walk to his workplace to help ‘give something back’ to the charities which saved his teenage daughter’s life after she suffered a serious fall a year ago.
As a heart-warming gesture, Cyril Dean, 50, set out on Sunday to tackle the huge walk from Malvern to Upminster in Essex where his workplace Arcus Solutions is based as part of National Walk to Work Week.
Newland resident Mr Dean has raised more than £2,000 for Midlands Air Ambulance and Birmingham Children’s Hospital as a thank you to the way they saved Olivia’s life after she fell from a horse in Leigh Sinton 12 months ago.
Mr Dean is hoping to raise more than £2,500 for the causes.
He said Olivia, who was 13 years old at the time, fell off her horse while riding at Guinness Park Farm after it was spooked by a group of nearby ponies.
Olivia was knocked unconscious and at one point even stopped breathing.
Mr Dean’s wife Moira had to administer CPR to Olivia – only weeks after she attended a first aid course at Great Malvern Primary School – and thankfully Olivia started breathing again.
When the air ambulance arrived, Olivia remained unconscious and was taken to the children’s hospital where she was diagnosed with a brain injury.
It then took several days before she opened her eyes again and weeks until she started talking again and coming round to her normal self.
Mr Dean told the Observer he was grateful for all the money he has received and is looking forward to completing his epic challenge.
“The training’s gone really well for the long walk to work. I had some niggles a few weeks ago but I’ve been stretching regularly so it’s all good,” he said.
“The donations have really taken off in recent weeks after a slow start but there’s still extra money to come from sponsorship forms and Barnards Green Cricket Club so I’ll smash the target.
“I was more than happy with raising over £1,000 but to have raised the amount I have is really special.
“My work is tracking my progress through my iPhone so they’ll get to see how far I have walked each day.”
The idea of Cyril’s Walk to Work campaign came about when he was walking to the hospital to see Olivia when BBC Radio 2 presenter Chris Evans announced details of the week-long campaign on his show.
Mr Dean, who works as a service solutions manager, then took part in regular walks before deciding he would take on the huge challenge of walking to work from his home.
His employers helped provide his training for the challenge as part of their Working on Wellbeing campaign.
