A SHIRLEY engineer is getting his running shoes on in honour of his ‘angel’ dad.
Manil Chauhan will be lining up alongside thousands of other to take on the AJ Bell Great Manchester Run 10k to raise funds for the British Heart Foundation (BHF) in memory of his dad, Hitesh, who suffered from heart failure throughout Manil’s childhood and who ‘never went to bed without a hug’.
Hitesh died aged 50, exactly five years to the day that he underwent surgery to fit an Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator (ICD), which is a small device that sends electrical pulses to treat abnormal heart rhythms.
An Ironworker from Leicester, Hitesh grew up in Kenya where his cardiologist believes he picked up a parasite in childhood that irreparably damaged his heart.
He suffered his first heart attack aged 29 followed by another three years later.
Manil said: “The first heart attack was catastrophic for my dad’s health, and he was never fully well again. He lived with heart failure, suffering breathlessness and couldn’t run around after us in the way that he wanted to.
“My dad was my angel. He showed me so much love all the time. If ever I was unsure of anything he would say: ‘Why can’t you explore that? Give it a go. We’re always here to support you’.
“He would call me at university and tell me to keep doing what I was doing and that everything would always be ok, and to trust myself. He’d hold my hand or put his hand on my chest or forehead, and I always felt so much strength and happiness from that. I feel sad that I don’t get that now, but I do it for my boys and he paved the way for that.
“He was such a good role model. Everything I would do with my dad I can now do with my children. I feel he wanted to show me all the love always because he knew his time was short.”
The dad of two signed up for the 10k AJ Bell Great Manchester Run at a family party to celebrate what would have been Hitesh’s 60th birthday.
Manil said: “I know how lucky I am to be able to run and I want to do this for him and to raise money for BHF funded research that undoubtedly helped keep my dad alive. We would never have had those extra five years with him if he hadn’t had the ICD fitted.
“It was always touch and go with dad. He had up and down days. He was such a fighter and no matter how bad things seemed he always got through it.
“The final time he went to hospital in November 2013, he was due to come out eight days later. We brought the bed downstairs at home and were ready for the next chapter, but he kept losing consciousness and then the ICD would fire again, and he would come back to us.
“It was very hard for him and we knew that he couldn’t fight anymore. We decided to allow the doctors to deactivate the ICD so that he could slip peacefully away.
“It was the hardest day of my life, but he has left me strong, and I will run proudly for him and be the dad to my boys that he was to me.”
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