Burn woman raises money for defibrillator

A woman from Burn, near Selby, has raised over £3,600 to provide a defibrillator for the village with an epic cycle trip to her parents’ first home.

Sally Holmes, with her husband Andrew ,started the fund-raising as a tribute to her late father, who died just before Christmas - and completed the 87-mile round trip from Burn to Hull on Wednesday.

She and Andrew were waved off at 6.30am and then welcomed back home at around 3pm the same day by a group of family, friends and villagers – all at a safe social distance.

Sally Holmes:

“The loss of my dad was very sudden.

Mum called us in the middle of the night and we rushed to their aid, using the defibrillator available in Hambleton.

We know now it couldn’t actually have helped him, but at the time it gave us hope.

That tragic night intensified our desire to get a defibrillator for Burn, so a plan was hatched to raise funds.

It started with some really big ideas – we had thoughts of cycling the length of Wales or island hopping the Outer Hebrides, but Covid-19 put a stop to those plans!

However, a recent incident in Burn, thankfully with a happier ending, fuelled our determination and also encouraged the village to support us.

We decided to go for 'The 87 Challenge' as my dad would have been 87 on July 1, my mum and dad’s first home in Hull was at number 87 and a round trip from Burn to that house is almost 87 miles exactly.

My dad was also a keen cyclist in his younger days, so it seemed the perfect way to remember him and raise the funds.”

Burn village will now be looking at buying and installing of a defibrillator in a suitably safe but accessible spot. and investigating training on its use for a rota of volunteers.

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