Christian Eriksen and Thomas Frank Visit Heart Screening Event
Fans delighted by surprise appearance at Gunnersbury Park
Suzanne Rowan (right) with Christian Eriksen
There delight for the Brentford fans who took up an offer of free heart screenings this weekend when Christian Eriksen and Thomas Frank made a surprise appearance.
The Danish superstar and the Brentford FC manager turned up this Saturday (30 April) at the Gunnersbury Park Sports Hub.
They wanted to meet those involved and learn about the initiative organised by the charity Cardiac Risk in the Young (CRY) in association with the Brentford FC Community Sports Trust.
The event was taking place in memory of the Club’s former Technical Director Robert Rowan Robert died who died suddenly in 2018 due to a cardiomyopathy episode. Around 200 fans and members of staff from Brentford FC were screened across the weekend, financed by Robert’s memorial fund.
A range of fundraising activity has been taking place in recent years for the fund including the charity challenge A-K-A-DAY which is designed to encourage and support health and wellbeing. It aims to inspire people of all ages and abilities to get out and move for at least 1km each day throughout the month of May.
Club staff have also been involved with Head of Medical, Neil Greig and James Purdue, Head of B Team Athletic Performance, running marathons last year with the Brentford Lifeline Society also contributing.
The team supporting the heart screening event at Gunnersbury Park
Speaking on Saturday, Robert’s wife Suzanne Rowan explained her involvement with CRY, “We discovered CRY after Robert passed away in November 2018. We got in touch with them, explained what happened to Robert and did a bit of research to find out more about them. It was perfect support for us. Brentford FC got involved and we've been supporting them ever since.
“They do a lot of good work. They screen young people between 14 and 35. A lot of the money they raise goes towards screenings, research and they also support families as well so they do a lot of important work.”
Thomas Frank, a close friend of Robert’s, hoped that the sessions could help to save lives. “I think it is a very good way of remembering a very good friend of mine. And it’s such an important thing – hopefully these testing days ran by CRY will maybe save one or two lives.”
Rob Rowan (right) with the now Brentford manager Thomas Frank
Christian Eriksen offered his encouragement and stressed the importance of these check-ups and tests. “I think it's very healthy thing to do. And obviously it's something that even in my case, something happened like you wouldn't know was going to happen. So, to get that cleared out the way from a doctor’s perspective is only a positive. To do a test for a few minutes and get everything sorted out and be safe for your family and for everyone else then it is a very positive thing. It’s not only for you, it is for everyone around you.”
Every week in the UK at least 12 young people die of undiagnosed heart conditions. In 80% of cases of young sudden cardiac death there are no prior symptoms of a heart defect.
Like Reading Articles Like This? Help Us Produce More This site remains committed to providing local community news and public interest journalism. Articles such as the one above are integral to what we do. We aim to feature as much as possible on local societies, charities based in the area, fundraising efforts by residents, community-based initiatives and even helping people find missing pets. We've always done that and won't be changing, in fact we'd like to do more. However, the readership that these stories generates is often below that needed to cover the cost of producing them. Our financial resources are limited and the local media environment is intensely competitive so there is a constraint on what we can do. We are therefore asking our readers to consider offering financial support to these efforts. Any money given will help support community and public interest news and the expansion of our coverage in this area. A suggested monthly payment is £8 but we would be grateful for any amount for instance if you think this site offers the equivalent value of a subscription to a daily printed newspaper you may wish to consider £20 per month. If neither of these amounts is suitable for you then contact info@neighbournet.com and we can set up an alternative. All payments are made through a secure web site. One-off donations are also appreciated. Choose The Amount You Wish To Contribute. If you do support us in this way we'd be interested to hear what kind of articles you would like to see more of on the site – send your suggestions to the editor. For businesses we offer the chance to be a corporate sponsor of community content on the site. For £30 plus VAT per month you will be the designated sponsor of at least one article a month with your logo appearing if supplied. If there is a specific community group or initiative you'd like to support we can make sure your sponsorship is featured on related content for a one off payment of £50 plus VAT. All payments are made through a secure web site. |