FAMILY and friends of a 22-year-old man who died suddenly of a suspected cardiac arrest just after Christmas are preparing to walk in his memory from a Tavistock hairdressers to the Plymouth Argyle stadium in Plymouth on Saturday.
The 22km walk to remember Kiam Cummins, of St Budeaux in Plymouth, has been organised by his friend Adam Creber and starts at Kiam’s dad’s hair salon Maximillian Hairdressing in Brook Street, Tavistock and finishes at the Argyle stadium.
The route will take them along Drake’s Trail and Kiam’s family will join his friends to take part in the route.
The fundraiser will raise money for the charity Cardiac Risk in the Young (CRY), which aims to prevent suddent deaths by offering raising awareness, funding research and offering subsidied ECG (electrocardiogram) testing for those aged 14-35.
The charity has been chosen by Kiam’s dad as Kiam had an undiagnosed heart condition.
Adam, from Saltash, said: “Kiam was a close friend of mine and I wanted to do something. I took it upon myself to organise this walk to raise awareness and raise some money for the charity. I had originally thought of doing 22 miles for Kiam’s age but that was too far, so we changed it to 22km. I thought that would be about right.”
He explained that both the start and the finish of the walk are significant, as the hair salon in Tavistock is run by Kiam’s father Marcus and Kiam, an accountant, was a massive Argyle fan, who was a regular at all the matches with his friends.
“It will mean a huge amount to the family starting and finishing in places that are close to both Marcus and Kiam,” said Adam. “I think all his family are going to be coming along. We are going to meet at 8.30am for tea and coffee and leave at 9 and reckon to get to Home Park by three or half past three. We have a lot of family members meeting us at Home Park to do the last lap and they will put a picture of Kiam up on the big screen as we do the final lap.”
Adam works for BP in London and they will be match funding for all he raises. See the Go Fund Me website and search under ‘Kiam Cummins’ to donate.
Picture, Kiam, fourth from left, with friends at a match.