A FORMER Raglan woman is preparing to run the London marathon in aid of a heart charity after her husband collapsed suddenly from a cardiac arrest while out jogging.

Tanith Galer, who now lives in West London with her husband Darren, 36, is aiming to complete the London Marathon to raise funds for the charity Cardiac Risk in the Young (CRY).

Four years ago Mr Galer, whom she met as a pupil at Monmouth Comprehensive and married in 2005, suffered a cardiac arrest while out jogging on Ealing Common with his wife, falling on his face.

Mrs Galer, a trained first aider, immediately began performing CPR but his heart could not be restarted for almost half an hour. He was rushed to hospital and put in an induced coma. His family were told he had a ten percent chance of survival.

She said: “We knew that for the first few days he had less than ten percent chance of survival.”

“He gradually woke up, and is one of the very few survivors of such an event. He had to learn to walk and talk again. He was in hospital and rehabilitation centres for over seven months.”

Mr Galer, who once worked as a sound engineer at Rockfield Studios in Monmouth with the likes of Black Sabbath, has been left with life-changing injuries and has spasticity and mobility issues in his left side, which mean his muscles are continuously contracted, and brain injuries.

Mrs Galer, who works as an area manager for Boots and is her husband’s carer, said it was a total shock to his family, friends and students of the musician and guitar tutor as he had never smoked and exercised regularly.

She is currently training for the marathon and hopes to raise more than £2,000 for CRY which tests young people aged between 14 and 35 for hidden heart conditions and screens more than 20,000 young people every year in the UK.

For details visit http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/TanithGaler