A mum who was left with PTSD after she ran a half marathon while her father had a fatal heart attack, only discovering the chilling news after crossing the finish line, is set to tackle the same race a year later. This is despite trauma that has left her unable to run outside or leave her phone unattended.
While Felicity Williams, a 33-year-old communications director and barre instructor, ran London Landmarks Half Marathon last year, her dad Simon Burridge, 66, suffered a serious cardiac arrest. This put him into a coma just days before his death.
She missed her family’s phone call about her dad as her phone notifications were muted during the race. The impact of her dad's death whilst she was running the marathon, means she has not run outdoors since, and has to constantly have her phone by her side.
Overjoyed to have finished the race, Felicity tried to call her parents after crossing the line but was met with no answer. She was soon on a phone call with her youngest sister, Katie, who told her the devastating news of what had happened to their father.
Despite her trauma, Felicity and her sister Katie, 28, will be running the half marathon on April 2 2023 for the British Heart Foundation in their dad’s memory. They hope to turn a negative event into a positive one.
Felicity, who lives in Bristol with her husband, Jamie Williams, 35, a managing director for a property company, and their three children, Poppy, six, Jack, four, and Artie, two, said: “I haven’t been able to fully relax, or be fully in the moment ever since. Because part of me still thinks 'what if I get another call?'
“I thought (running the marathon) would be a good opportunity for closure, to come full circle, and change the narrative on the half marathon. Nothing will change what happened to my dad.
"But I thought to come back to that race, and do some good, could change the negative that is associated with the race, into a positive.” Felicity’s father died just two weeks after his 66th birthday.
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He had got the all-clear on Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 2016, after being diagnosed the previous year. He had regular check-ups with the doctor, which never displayed any symptoms of a heart condition.
In 2011, Felicity ran the London Marathon to give herself a challenge and instantly got the running bug. In September that year, she moved to Sydney, continued going on daily runs, and did several half marathons.
After moving back to the UK in 2017, she decided to sign up to run the London Landmarks Half Marathon in 2020 for Tommy’s, a charity that supports women who have had miscarriages. She said: “I had previously suffered a miscarriage, and many friends of mine have suffered miscarriages and struggled to conceive.
“I wanted to try and raise awareness for the work that they do. The number of women that have miscarriages is also really high, but yet it’s very rarely spoken about.”
Due to the pandemic and falling pregnant, Felicity decided to run the race in 2022. She was incredibly excited and nervous for the big day.
She said: “There’s always an element of anticipation and nervousness because it’s a big event and I was raising money. I was running with a friend and we planned a lovely day out in London after the race.”
When commuting to London, Felicity called her parents, and everything seemed normal. She said: “They were in good spirits, they said to call them when I got to the finish line.
“I then put my phone on do not disturb, I just wanted to be in the zone. I did the race, and I was naively, completely unaware of the events unfolding at my parents’ house.”
As Felicity reached the finish line, after two hours and six minutes of running, she was elated and called her parents to tell them that she had completed the race. But there was no answer.
Felicity soon received a call from Katie, who had been trying to contact her the whole time she was running. Her sister informed her that their dad had a heart attack moments after getting off the phone earlier that morning and was airlifted to a Bristol hospital from their home in the Cotswolds.
She said: “I was in the middle of all these crowds, and my youngest sister told me there had been an incident at home. Before she said anything else, my heart dropped.
“I instantly knew that it was something really bad. And actually, despite the mayhem going on around me, it felt like the whole world froze.”
Felicity rushed to her sister Laura’s house in Brook Green, London, to meet the rest of her family in Bristol, where it was confirmed that their father had suffered a cardiac arrest, a heart attack, and was in the operating theatre for six hours. He was then moved to intensive care and was in an induced coma.
She explained: “When they tried to bring him out, he didn’t respond. But the amazing cardiologist managed to put a stent in his heart and actually got his heart beating again.
“He was without oxygen for too long in that initial bit of having a heart attack, leading to severe brain damage. He passed away nine days later.”
It was a huge shock to her and her family, as her dad did not show any warning signs that he had heart issues. Felicity said: “When he was diagnosed with cancer, you could prepare yourself for the worst, but with this, he woke up feeling absolutely fine.
“He came downstairs, he had breakfast, and was sitting at the kitchen table. He started to complain that he had mild chest pains, but didn’t think anything of it.
“They weren’t severe, but he went to lie down in the sitting room. My mum got him a glass of water, but just a minute later, she found him unconscious.”
Since the death of her father, Felicity has suffered form PTSD and always has to have her phone by her side. She has not run outside since her father’s passing, as she is worried something else terrible will happen.
But, just before Christmas, Felicity received an email advertising the London Landmarks Half Marathon again and thought it would be an opportunity to turn something so negative into a positive memory. Now, Felicity is training for the marathon in the gym so she can see her phone clearly when running.
She said: “I don’t want people to be in the same situation we have had and are still going through. I just want to make my dad proud”.
To donate to Felicity’s fundraiser, follow this link: justgiving.com/fundraising/runningforbindi
