A RUNNER whose father died of a cardiac arrest when he was a teenager is raising money to help stop other families being 'torn apart'.

David Murray-Hundley, a technology entrepreneur, was just 16 when his father, Ivor, died unexpectedly aged 41.

Over 30 years later the Banbury resident says that he is still left with 'more questions than answers' over his dad's death.

Describing the moment he found out about the tragedy, the 43-year-old, who was away on a school trip at the time, said: "I was woken by the head teacher to be told that my dad had passed away.

"I didn’t get the chance to say goodbye – one minute he was here, the next minute he was no longer with us.

“We were all completely devastated but the grieving process was made even harder by the fact that doctors never managed to determine what exactly happened.

“Not a day goes by when I don’t think about him. He didn’t get a chance to see me graduate, get married or meet his grandchildren."

On Sunday October 1, Mr Murray-Hundley will join 4,500 runners to complete a run around Blenheim Palace to raise money for the British Heart Foundation’s life saving research.

Around 21,000 people lose their lives to heart and circulatory disease each year in the South East and around 930,000 people currently live with its burden.

There are around 30,000 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests in the UK each year and the overall survival rate is less than 1 in 10.

Last year's Blenheim Palace event, which features a half marathon, a 10k course and a family-friendly 2k fun-run, raised around £200,000 in the fight against heart disease.

Money raised this year will help the BHF fulfil its ambition to fund half a billion pounds of life saving heart research by 2020.

Mr Murray-Hundley said: "I’m taking on the Blenheim Palace 10km course because I would never want any other family to be torn apart in the tragic way that mine has.”

To register for the run see www.bhf.org.uk/Blenheim or by contact the events team at events@bhf.org.uk or 0845 130 8663