A MALVERN father-of-three is to go on a 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, 49, will tackle the huge walk from Malvern to Upminster in Essex where his workplace Arcus Solutions is based.
Newlands resident Mr Dean hopes to raise hundreds of pounds 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.
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 his daughter was lucky to still be alive and praised the quick-thinking actions of his wife and the rescuing efforts of the charities involved.
“When you see the work that was done by the people involved with the air ambulance and children’s hospital you feel really lucky,” he said.
“If my wife had not done the first aid course a few weeks earlier she would have had no idea what to do.
“I was on my way home from London when I found out and if it wasn’t for Moira’s quick-thinking, things could have been a whole lot different.
“Olivia is back in full-time school now and feels well in herself but she has her annual check-up in the next few weeks.”
More than a year on from the accident, Mr Dean will walk from Malvern to Upminster from Monday, June 6 to June 10 as part of National Walk to Work Week.
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 will help provide his training for the challenge as part of their Working on Wellbeing campaign.
So far he has raised almost £500.
He added: “All the money raised enables me to give something back to those charities that helped my daughter in her hour of need.
“Walking 25 to 30 miles a day over five days will be a case of the unknown as I’m not a runner and never been jogging.
“I’ve managed to get a few people from work on board and my daughters Olivia and Ruby will be joining me for the first leg of the run so I will not be alone throughout the long 140-mile walk.”
Anybody wishing to donate to Cyril’s Walk to Work can do so by visiting www.justgiving.com/teams/cyrildean.
