The shock and sadness at Daz’s death remains, of course it does. The dark skies this brings to us all are chased with the light of remembering brighter days with Daz.
This is Wasdale, the sort of landscape where Daz was in his element,
We now know that Daz died from a rare heart condition, Left Ventricular Hypertrophic Obstructive Cardiomyopathy, the same condition that struck footballer Fabrice Muamba earlier this year. It is a rare condition, there is more information here, on a website for a foundation set up in memory of John Taylor, a fell runner and international athlete who also died of cardiomyopathy in 2002. There is something very difficult about understanding this condition, we can read and understand the science, yes, but not the emotions it raises, it just flies in the face of all we are told about exercise ‘keeping a healthy heart’. I think fell runners in particular will have difficulty with that.
I notice on the John Taylor foundation page, that one of the external links is to CRY, Cardiac Risk in the Young. Some years ago I heard Paddy Jelen, talking about the death of her daughter, she did so very movingly and passionately in her quest to raise awareness of her daughters rare and often misdiagnosed heart condition, Long QT3. At first I hesitated to post the links here, thinking we’d really all read enough ‘sad stuff’ on the Internet in the last few days, but thought better of it. If Paddy can talk about it, I’d be a wuss not to post it.
Go read, please.
(Spud the dog will be back to his regular Sunday postings, some Sunday soon.)
October 14, 2012 at 8:07 pm
A breathtakingly beautiful photo that speaks to the darkness and light of life.
October 15, 2012 at 9:41 am
That article was very interesting. My neighbour (who was in his early 40s) died recently of an unexpected heart attack. He had had a funny turn six months previously, which the hospital failed to explain. He was referred to an oncologist rather than a cardiologist, I think. I may pass this article on to his widow, in due course.
Beautiful photo. When I hovered over it with my mouse the caption ‘Snowbow’ came up. I’ve never seen one of those before. Very dramatic.
October 15, 2012 at 7:41 pm
A thoughtful post, and I feel that you were right to include the links.
An unexpected death in the fit, and more especially the very young, is thankfully rare but shocking when it happens, and which sadly I’ve seen happen twice. xx
October 16, 2012 at 5:42 am
I was moved by that image the first time around and it only improves with revisiting.
October 16, 2012 at 6:50 pm
Thanks for the links – I have read (and instantly diagnosed myself with all those conditions, but that always happens).
Stupendous picture
October 20, 2012 at 2:03 am
This fantastic and unique photo is a beautiful and dignified memory of your late friend and his tragic death. My condolences to those left behind – family members and friends.