Portland man running London marathon for heart charity
Matthew Savage will be running the London Marathon in two weeks.
A man from Portland is running the London Marathon in two weeks to raise money and awareness after his wife survived a heart attack aged 23.
Lisa Savage, and subsequently the couple's two daughters, was diagnosed with Long QT, a heartbeat syndrome.
This year's London Marathon had to be pushed back from it's traditional date in April to October this year because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Matthew is hoping to raise £1,500 for SADS UK, a charity which aims to save lives, providing information, funding research and medical equipment to prevent premature sudden cardiac death.
Matthew told Greatest Hits Radio Dorset:
"They've had bills put in front of parliament to have mandatory defibrillators in all schools, and sports centres.
"They're trying to make a big difference and the big thing is defibrillators in the community.
"It's just trying to raise their profile and things like the events of the Euros when Christian Eriksen obviously collapsed on the pitch."
The charity has provided a defibrillator for one of the couple's daughters so she can carry it around at school with her, in case of a heart attack.
"I couldn't be prouder of the way they just take everything in their stride, there are times during sports days and things like that when they can't necessarily involve themselves but they always find something to do.
"They're fantastic, they just battle on."
So far Matthew's raised £900. If you'd like to find out more about donating, you can do that here.