‘Miles for Murgh’... pals band together to honour tragic heart victim James
A GROUP of friends are doing their bit to remember a brother and friend who died in tragic circumstances five years ago.
James Murgatroyd was just 27 when he died from an undiagnosed heart condition in October 2016.
He was previously fit and healthy and showed no signs of ill health when he collapsed at his home with a ruptured heart aneurysm and a dilated aorta.
Five years on, his brother Paul is teaming up with six school friends for a “Miles for Murg” 24 Peaks challenge in the Lake District, where over two days of trekking they will walk the equivalent of Ben Nevis one and a half times and Mount Snowdon three times.
They are raising money for the charity, Cardiac Risk in the Young, which screens 14- to 35-yearolds across the country for undiagnosed heart conditions.
John Hooley, 31, is one of the group members and he said that everyone has had to come to terms with James’ death, while also being inspired to do something in his memory.
He said: “I just could not believe it, I did not want to believe it. You almost feel like you’re invincible, at that age. No could have ever predicted it – he was a young man, a healthy, fit lad.
“I wanted to do something as a group which was a bit tougher and this came up. All the group I wanted to have with me could all make it.
“It’s important to keep active - we are not getting any younger and it gets us all out of the house.” After James’s death, his family discovered that he was one of 12 people to die every week in the UK due to an undiagnosed heart condition.
Almost five years on from his death, it is the first fundraising event that the group have done together, looking to raise £6,000 for the charity.
John will be joined by James’ brother Paul, and friends Matthew Trussell, Joe Doris, Luke Woodward, Danny Mccarthy and Tim Grocott.
All seven went to Etwall Primary School and John Port School together.
Mr Trussell, 32, played in a band with James as a teenager and has previously cycled 100 miles to raise money for the charity.
He said that the group were all completing regular training for the event and that it is a fitting tribute to James’ active personality.
He said: “It’s something that feeds really well into the work the family have done over the past five years and it is part of legacy we have for
James. He was also really active and I was in a band with him. He was known for going hell for leather on the drum kit. We wanted to do coastto-coast, which is one of the hardest challenges in the UK – we wanted it to be a challenge, and it’s been hard to meet up but it is going really well.”
It costs around £5,000 to provide 100 people with an electrocardiogram (ECG), which would have very likely picked up the defect which caused James’ death.
His family, including parents Paul and Rose and siblings Paul and Amy, have raised more than £35,000 overall since the tragic incident which has allowed for hundreds of people in the county to be screened.
They typically hold an annual fundraising festival called Jimjam, hosted at the Venue in Derby. This had raised enough money for heart scans for 200 people last August, but these had to be postponed due to coronavirus. You can find out more about the challenge and donate on the group’s fundraising page at www.justgiving.com/ fundraising/milesformurg.
James’ brother Paul said the walk aims to replace the money that would have been raised by the festival and that the walk hopes to raise awareness of the issue.
He said: “It’s a massive awareness boost, and what we want to do is help fund as many young adult to get screened around mainly the Derby area, but anyone can sign up to it, anywhere in the country.
“If we can help one person then we feel like we’ve achieved something. One guy, who had a heart screen because of the screens, did detect something and since then he’s undergone surgery to make sure everything’s okay.”