David Staff Memorial Race
Date: Sunday 17th November 2024
Category: AS : 6km 305m climb
Place: The Kiosk, Sunnyhurst Wood, Darwen BB3 0LA
Fee: £5 Entry on the day
Other info: Min age 14 yrs.
After the success of the 2014 route, we have decided to keep it.
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Registration is still at The Kiosk
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Race start is now on the main path opposite the Kiosk.
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The route turns left at the bandstand and leaves the wood via the Lychgate carpark (next to The Sunnyhurst pub)
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After turning right to Waterman's Cottage and then left up the concrete path, there is familiar route up to Darwen Tower and around the moors.
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The descent follows the same rouite back in to the woods via the pub.
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Finish remains at The Bandstand.
All Darwen Dashers races are held in accordance with FRA safety requirements and rules for competition. Please make sure you are familiar with them.
A bit about David..
David turned 17 years of age on 5th December 1994 which then allowed him to compete as a senior for the Dashers.
His first race (and last) as a senior was in the Clitheroe 10k on 27th December 1994. David collapsed and died by the road side at 5 miles from a condition called Hyperthropic Obstructive Cardiomyopathy, which in laymans terms is an abnormal thickening of the heart muscles which interrupted the electrical pulses which keeps the heart working.
This condition takes the lives of approximately 8 so-called fit and healthy young people a week, most of them are actively engaged in sport, but it is not the sport that kills; it is the exertion that acts as a trigger.
The race is run in memory of David Staff, who joined the Dashers as a 15 year old and competed in many fun runs as a junior. In September 1994, he completed the Great North Run in 1 hour 49 minutes 02 seconds along-side his dad Granville wearing his Blackburn Rovers home and away kit, needless to say the comments along the route in Newcastle cannot be repeated.
David was a very likeable person who got on with everybody he came into contact with; young and old and had a very bright future ahead of him, not only as a young man preparing to take his A-levels at Queen Elizabeth’s Grammar School but also as a member of Darwen Dashers.
We host this race to raise funds for Cardiac Risk in the Young, the charity that David's father Granville actively supports. The funds raised are used to provide heart screening in the young; so far over 60 people have had heart defects identified as a result of Granville's fund raising. Since David's death, Granville has raised over £100,000 and we are proud to continue to support this cause.
