Pacer’s 10k challenge after heart attack
MANY PEOPLE would take it easy after suffering a heart attack – but grandfather Arthur Wood is planning to run a 10km race.
Just two weeks after completing a 100-mile cycle ride, the veteran of the Pudsey Pacers running club went into cardiac arrest in September 2016 while on a Bramley parkrun with his grandson Ewan, who was then aged seven.
Following triple bypass surgery, his bed had to be moved downstairs in his home because he could “barely move”, but he now has set himself the 10k challenge to raise money for the British Heart Foundation – and will do it with one side of his bushy beard chopped off.
Speaking about his “long road to recovery”, Mr Wood, 68, from Leeds, said: “If I had a shower, I had to sit down. I couldn’t get upstairs. We had to get my bed downstairs. It took a long time.”
The retired builder, who has in the past run marathons, will race the Bradford 10k on March 18. He has been training back at the 5km Bramley parkrun events.
Mr Wood, a former Pacers chairman who lives with his wife Carol on Victoria Rise, will have half his beard shaved off in front of the Bramley war memorial at 8.45am prior to the parkrun on the day before his 10km. He thanked Bramley parkrun organiser Jean Hollings for her help. To help fundraise, visit www.justgiving.com/ fundraising /arthursha lfabeard