Half Marathon for Luke Barnes

Hi everyone!

As you all may or may not know we tragically lost Luke on 17th March 2023. In 2018 Luke was diagnosed with cardiomyopathy, a disease of the heart muscle that makes it harder for the heart to pump blood to the rest of the body. Luke was admitted into hospital in November 2022 for 4 months prior to his death. He had to have emergency surgery to fit a BiVad machine which was needed to keep his heart pumping while the wait continued for a heart donor, catastrophically his machine failed and as a result of this he suffered irreversible damage to his brain.

We are running the Robin Hood half marathon on 24th September in memory of Luke and to raise money for his Charity @lukebarnescharity set up by his beloved wife Belle. Our aim is to raise money to enable Belle to share her experience and help other families in a similar situation and spread awareness on the importance of organ and blood donation.

Luke was a massive fitness fan until he got sick and he knew we were doing this marathon before he passed away. We nicknamed ourselves “Team Barnes” and he was so excited to root us on from the sidelines. I know he will be up there cheering (and maybe laughing) at us on and we all hope to do him proud!

Team Barnes consists of Luke’s mother and father in law, Nick and Liz, myself Georgia and my partner Dom who are bestfriends of Luke and Belle, Belle’s cousin Heidi, and Uncle Dan. It’s not too late to sign up and start training if anyone wants to join us! We all appreciate any donations big or small to go towards our charity in memory of the most incredible man.

@lukebarnescharity on instagram to see how the money raised will be used