James Bailey

In 2009 at the age of 17 James was diagnosed with one of the sudden adult death syndromes - Wolff Parkinson White. This was only found during a random ECG and was a total shock to James who considered hmself to be very fit and sporty. He was advised to stop sports and was immediately put on medication. He was due to go on a football tour only a month later and was advised it would be unwise to go which was a huge disappointment . He had to undertake 2 operations that same year and fortunately the latter was successful. Despite the seriousness of the situation, James considered himself to be very fortunate that it had been discovered and was very keen to do all he could to raise both funds and awaress of such conditions. He therefore took it upon himself to arange charity auctions to raise money and also as a surgery survivor support the work of CRY -cardiac risk in the young. He took every opportunity to raise awareness of such conditions and to campaign for ECG`s to be availble to those particularly at risk - sporty 14-35 year olds. He recently spoke at a Parliamentary reception at the House of Commons, which took a lot of courage for him to do. Having the opportunity to be a torch bearer I know would mean everything to James personally, but it would also be the perfect platform to highlight the link between sport and sudden adult death. As James said at the House of Commons, he is happy to campign as he considers himself to be very lucky to be alive.