Merseyside firefighter is running marathon for British Heart Foundation to make late dad ‘proud of me’ again

Ahead of February’s Heart Month, Stephen McCann explains why…

Crossing the finish line of the London Marathon in October 2021 is a memory etched firmly in Stephen McCann’s mind, and not just because of the incredible feat he’d just achieved.

“It will stay with me forever because it was the last time my dad told me he was proud of me,” says Stephen.

“I was too tired to take it all in and understand how much it meant; and I never got the chance to tell him.”

Six months later Stephen snr died after a fourth heart attack and stroke, which is why when Stephen, a 35-year-old firefighter from Newton-le-Willows, runs in the Manchester Marathon in April in aid of the British Heart Foundation, every step he takes will be for his dad.

“I said I’d never raise funds for a marathon again because it adds too much pressure, but this one is very close to my heart, and means the world to me,” says the father-of-three. 

“I am doing this because I want to beat my personal best and make my dad proud of me again – and I want to say thank you to the British Heart Foundation whose research gave me and my family many more years with my dad than we would have had without it.”

Stephen, who’s married to childminder Emma, 34, with whom he had Tyler, 10, Clara, seven, and three-year-old Rory, explains: “My dad died in April last year – the marathon will be close to the first anniversary – aged 61.

“He had a history of heart problems and had his first heart attack when he was only 32. He lived in County Armagh in Northern Ireland, where I’m from, and he was cycling to work one day when it happened.

“He went on to have two more heart attacks before having an ICD defibrillator implanted (the small device can treat people with dangerously abnormal heart rhythms, by sending electrical pulses to regulate them). 

“One night last year the defibrillator shocked him 22 times in one episode, and he later had his fourth heart attack and a stroke. He went for an operation on his heart known as ablation that scars tissue to block certain electrical pathways in the heart. But it didn’t go to plan and sadly he passed away on the operating table.”

But he says: “However devastating it was to lose my dad, for all of us, if it wasn’t for the BHF we would have lost him years ago, maybe 20 years ago.

“So we are grateful to have had all that extra time with him.

“He got to see me get married to Emma and have children of my own, and he was grandfather to them; so many memories that we wouldn’t have had.”

Ellie Maynes, BHF’s events manager, says she’s sad to hear about what happened to Stephen’s father but glad that BHF research may have helped him live a longer life than he might otherwise have had.

“We’re immensely proud of the research carried out by scientists we fund, but also immensely proud of people like Stephen who raise the much-needed money to pay for it,” she says.

“Heart disease is a huge killer – someone dies from a heart or circulatory disease every two hours in Merseyside – so I’m sure Stephen’s father would have been proud of what his son is doing to help ensure fewer people go through the heartbreak that he and his family did.”

Training for the Manchester Marathon on April 16 is going well, and Stephen – who came to Merseyside to study sports science and development at Liverpool Hope University – is sticking to his schedule as well as his shifts at Newton-le-Willows fire station allow.

His colleagues have been supportive, and he is keen to beat his PB of 3 hours, 59 minutes: “Doing that would be great, but just getting across the finish line and raising money and awareness for the BHF will mean the world.

“The BHF has helped halve the number of people dying from heart and circulatory disease in the UK but sadly hundreds of people still lose their lives. Only with support can they create new treatments and new cures.

“That’s why I’m doing the Manchester Marathon and why, with every step I take, my dad will be in my mind. It still gives me goosebumps and brings tears to my eyes when I remember thinking about him telling me he was proud of me.

“And I hope I’ll make him proud of me again.”

To support Stephen go to the website HERE.

To find out more about the British Heart Foundation and Heart Month visit the website HERE.