A dad who was "always there for his family" died as he underwent heart surgery.
Stephen McCann died at the age of 61 during surgery on his heart in 2022. His son, also called Stephen, lives in Newton-le-Willows and has shared a tribute to his late dad, who he described as "always there for his family."
Firefighter Stephen said: "He had his first heart attack when he was 32, so that was quite young, while he was living in County Armagh in Northern Ireland.
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"He was cycling to work one day when it happened. He then went on to have a further two heart attacks and in the end had a defibrillator implanted. This went off one night last year and shocked him 22 times in one episode. He later had his fourth heart attack and a stroke before he sadly died while having surgery last April."
Stephen added: "Everyone was of course absolutely devastated, he was like the glue that held everything together. He was always there for us.
"We had a little bit of good news around the time which sort of helped us get through, my sister unexpectedly fell pregnant with her second child just a few weeks after."
Stephen believes without the research and support from the British Heart Foundation, his dad would have died years ago, and is now raising money to help fund their efforts. He said: "If it wasn’t for the BHF and the research it’s funded we would have lost him years ago. So that’s the reason I am doing this for the charity, I just want to give something back."
The 35-year-old will take on the Manchester marathon in April, while raising funds for the British Heart Foundation. Stephen, who also ran the London Marathon in 2021, said his preparation for the race was going well so far and he was sticking to a training plan as much as his shifts at the fire station would allow.
His colleagues were all very supportive and encouraging him to better his time of 3 hours 59 minutes from last year. He also said he would encourage anyone thinking of signing up to go for it.
To donate to Stephen's fundraiser for the British Heart Foundation, visit here.
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