Kev Chandler is looking to raise at least £1000, which will be split between the British Heart Foundation and the essential upkeep of our Leek Town defibrillators. Kev has gone through so much in recent times, but typical of him, he’s thinking of others.

Here’s Kev’s story – please support him if you can.

Anyone who goes to Leek Town matches will have seen (and heard) Kev Chandler – a regular member of the True Blue Army, and one often seen with a huge grin on his face. He and his wife Georgina rarely miss a game, home or away, are absolutely huge Leek fans, and members of Grace Street On Tour. You’ll often see them perched by the side of the pitch, stood next to their big flag.

These are the people that every non-league football club not only needs, but depends upon.

Unfortunately, Kev collapsed in June 2015, and subsequently found out that he had a low heart rate. Nothing was done about it at the time, but over the next eight years Kev has collapsed at least a further ten times - always during the night.

On 13th December last year, Georgina found Kev on the kitchen floor after he had once again collapsed….an ambulance was called, and after an ECG, the medics found an issue with his heart. Although not a heart attack, he was blue-lighted to Royal Stoke Coronary Care Unit where he was fitted with a loop recorder to monitor what was happening.

Two weeks later, Kev collapsed once again. It was later found out that his heart had ‘paused’ for seven seconds which is the reason why he had collapsed. He and Georgina were then told that he needed a pacemaker fitted, which took place two days later, although Kev did go home that evening.

During all of this, Kev only missed one Leek Town game – unfortunately for Kev, it was our 5-0 New Years’ Day win at Kidsgrove! This was purely due to Georgina saying he could not go three days after having the pacemaker fitted! If Kev will ever forgive his wife is a question that no one has been brave enough to ask yet!

Whilst waiting to be discharged Kev decided that he wanted to do something to raise money for the British Heart Foundation for both their support and the information that they produce which is given free to pacemaker patients - so a sponsored walk was decided. He also wanted to do something to help a little closer to home – something that would have an effect on the Leek Town Community…..

This is why half of what Kev is raising will go towards batteries for the defibrillators at The F. Ball Community Stadium. It costs around £400 per defibrillator to replace the battery and pads every 2 to 3 years, and the pads alone cost nearly £100 and can only be used once. It goes without saying how imperative it is that we ensure our defibrillators are in great shape and how essential they could be to anyone who is at our stadium.

The plan is for a 7 mile walk to, around, and back from Rudyard on Sunday 30th June, starting at the F Ball Community Stadium. The meeting time is 9am, where you may want a breakfast bap to set you up for the walk ahead? After the walk is completed, a well-earned drink or two in Blues Bar will be the order of the day.

You’ll find plenty of hard-hitting facts about heart and circulatory diseases, and these include:

There are around 7.6 million people living with heart and circulatory diseases in the UK
Estimates are that more than half of us in the UK will get a heart or circulatory condition in our lifetime
Heart and circulatory diseases cause around 27% of all deaths in the UK; more than 480 every day!

Kev’s JustGiving page is now live. He has set an initial target at £1000 which, as we have said before, will be split 50/50 between British Heart Foundation and Leek Town FC for the upkeep of the two defibrillators. Please feel free to join him and a number of his Leek Town friends on the walk.

The link to the JustGiving page is HERE Please support this if you can

Thank you.