The sun shone brightly on one of the hottest days of the year as the 140 Pulse Challenge participants warmed up for a very special day. Shine for Shani's third sponsored walk took place on Sunday 10 September with walkers of all ages sporting lime green t-shirts as they walked with friends and family though the streets of London and Hertfordshire.​

 

The charity, set up in memory of Shani Berman, fundraises to help improve the life chances of children with heart conditions and is delighted to announce that this event raised over £40,000 which will go toward two important projects at Great Ormond Street Hospital.

 

The first group of walkers set out for a marathon walk, starting at GOSH, inspired by words of encouragement from Simon Berman, Shani's father, and one of the team at the GOSH Children's Charity.

 

This year the longest walk took participants on a scenic route to Tower Bridge, past the London Eye and Buckingham Palace, before heading through Piccadilly Circus and out towards Regents Park. 

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Along the way a huge team of volunteer marshals in bright lime green t-shirts offered encouragement and refreshments. At 13 miles more walkers joined the group and strode on through Hampstead Heath and into Golders Hill Park. Finally at 5.75 miles – a distance chosen to symbolically reflect how old Shani was in years when she died following complex open heart surgery in 2017– the rest of the participants joined in, including many families and a few brave runners. 

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All the participants crossed the rainbow coloured balloon arch finish line at Borehamwood Shul and were greeted with medals and a well-deserved cup of tea!

Shani’s dad, Simon Berman, says, “we’ve been Shining for Shani as a family and a community ever since she died. With the glorious sunshine we’ve had all week, it’s almost as if Shani was shining back at us and was part of everything we did for the Pulse Challenge".

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Participants on the walk ranged in age from 8 to 80 and the family-friendly design meant that many families walked with two or three generations together. New friendships were made and personal challenges overcome leading to proud faces crossing the finish line. 

The money raised will go towards Shine for Shani’s newest fundraising project which is to raise £70,000 to fund new SmartAblate Equipment which is an incredible machine used to treat a range of childhood heart conditions, with the potential to dramatically improve the quality and/or length of patients at GOSH. The technique involves destroying cells that are causing the heart to beat irregularly and is performed via cardiac catheter – a procedure in which a thin tube is fed through a tiny incision in the skin, along veins or arteries and into the heart, guided by imaging. Shani had a number of these types of her procedure during her short life.

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Our fundraising will also be for the purchase of a Cardiothoracic Educational Mannequin for Cardiac Intensive Care to allow even more specialised, high-quality training to be delivered.