Dad rides with agony of losing little Sophie
A CAIRNS father heartbroken by the sudden death of his baby daughter in 2006 is breaking a 13-year silence and embarking on a gruelling fundraising mission aimed at improving outcomes for Far Northern cardiac patients.
Mark Gwynne lost his 18month-old daughter Sophie when she was struck down by a double whammy of rare cardiac conditions called interstitial myocarditis and hystiocytoid cardiomyopathy.
“It’s tough, it takes a while. Everyone deals with it differently and I don’t come out and talk about it too much and it has taken me a very long time to do something like this,” he said.
On September 21, Mr Gwynne will honour the memory of his daughter by hitting the road on the 330km Cardiac Challenge ride from Cairns to Cooktown. He imagines the ride will be an emotional rollercoaster as he flashes back to a time when little Sophie was alive and well.
“One day she was playing and she just dropped over, it was that quick, and there was no way of telling. She was just playing in the lounge room one day and the next day she is not there anymore,” he said.
“She was very young. It has taken me a long time to come out and talk about it. A few years ago, for the anniversary, we did some fundraising for the Heart Foundation, which went well, so now I am doing the ride and I am glad I am doing it.”
Mr Gwynne hoped the money raised by the Cardiac Challenge would be used to help others affected by heart disease in the Cairns area.
“Every little bit counts and the more we can get for people up this way (the better). Cairns should have a lot more to treat people with heart conditions and it’s a shame to see people driven down south for heart operations,” he said.
Hosted by the Far North Queensland Hospital Foundation, the ride has raised $3.1 million for cardiac services, including a second cardiac catheter lab at Cairns Hospital.
In the 13 years the Cardiac Challenge has been held, 1960 people have done the 333km ride.
So far this year, $173,820 has been raised.
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