On a mission to save lives
PAIR INSTALL 400 HEART MACHINES ACROSS THE NORTH EAST
INSPIRATIONAL lifesavers Kelly Best and Christine Stephenson have been nominated for our prestigious Chronicle Champions award.
In July we told how their love for the same man brought them closer together after his devastating death.
Christine’s brother and Kelly’s husband, Neil Best, died aged 32 in 2003 of an undiagnosed heart defect.
And in Neil’s memory they set out to place defibrillators across the North East and raise awareness of CPR.
Now, after five years, they have raised around £400,000 to get almost 400 defibrillators across the region, while eight lives have been saved – thanks to their machines.
And now they have been nominated in our Champion Fundraiser category.
After Neil’s death Kelly discovered her sons carried the same gene that their dad had and the family are determined to make sure no more lives are lost unnecessarily.
Kelly, 47, from Cramlington, said: “We are honoured that we have been nominated.
“It is not just Christine and I who fundraise but a whole bunch of us. It’s all hands to the pump and we all muck in.
“We never stop fundraising, but we do so much more.
“I’m a counsellor and when parents need support after finding their children have heart defects, I go and have a coffee and a chat with them.
“We also have nine defibrillators that we loan out to parents while their children’s tests come through.
“Parents often can’t sleep at night with worry and having a defibrillator in the home helps them cope.
“Neil was a shy and quiet man but he would have been proud of us and more so of his sons for how they have dealt with it all.
“But we are very honoured to have been nominated for the Chronicle Champions award.”
Kelly added: “Before Neil died I didn’t know anything about it and I had no idea that all these people were dying every year, and it could be anyone.
“Neil was very quiet and laid back,
and he kept fit. He played football, rugby and golf and he was a great dad.
“I think he would be over the moon that something so positive has come out of what happened.”
Kelly and Christine have become the driving force behind North East Hearts With Goals charity and their aim is to see defibrillators become as common as fire extinguishers in venues.
With sudden cardiac arrest being the biggest killer in the UK, claiming 100,000 lives a year including 15 youngsters a week, the women are proud to be rolling out their dream as they remember Neil.
“Neil was getting ready to go out one night and was running a bath when he collapsed. No-one was there with him and Kelly found him on the bathroom floor,” said mum-of-three Christine, 45, of Cramlington.
“We didn’t start the charity then because we were told to just accept it.
“But it wasn’t until Kelly and Neil’s son Will was genetically tested we realised how widespread it was and we decided to do something to help.
“Their other son Joseph also has the gene but he has not shown any symptoms. However last year Will had a cardiac arrest and he’s now fitted with an ICD, a sort of mini defibrillator, that shocks the heart back into rhythm.”