Lifesaving legacy of ‘devoted’ dad-of-three who died during Holcombe hill run

The sudden death of an ‘ultra-fit’ father-of-three while running on Holcombe hill has led to lifesaving cardiac equipment being installed at the Peel monument.

The sudden death of an ‘ultra-fit’ father-of-three while running on Holcombe hill has led to lifesaving cardiac equipment being installed at the Peel monument.
Andy Haines, 45, from Swinton, had a sudden heart attack while running on the hill with five other members of the Holcombe Harriers group.

Andy, a former reservist soldier who served in Iraq, is remembered as a ‘loving and devoted family man’ with a passion for running, mountain biking, mountaineering and kayaking.

Andy’s wife, Andrea, 47, is backing the charity, Restart the Heart, who are to install a defibrillator at the Peel monument at the top of the hill this week.
Andrea said that had such equipment been closer to him when he collapsed ‘he would have stood a better chance, most definitely’.

Andy, who was sales director at his family’s lab equipment firm, had been Andrea’s partner for 21 years with the couple marrying just a year before his death. She said he was known for being a prankster and was ‘totally besotted’ with their three sons, Sam, 16, Isaac, 11 and eight-year-old Joshua.
Andrea recounted the events of the horrific night last November which changed all their lives.

She said: “On Thursday nights I would take two of the lads to rugby and Andy would go running with Holcombe Harriers. “He was umming and ahhing about whether to go and as I went out with the boys he said the usual ‘see you later love, I love you’.

“He phoned me at 6.50pm to say he’d decided to go running. “I had a phone track app for him that we use to know where the boys are.

“Normally at about 9.30pm I would get a call from him to say I’m on my way home. Andrea added: “That night there was no call and it was getting later and later so I looked and saw his phone hadn’t moved from the Co-op car park at Holcombe.

“I was worried so at about 10.40pm me and his dad, Barry, drove to where the phone was and at that time my expectation was that he’d been hurt while running. “I thought he’s probably fallen because it’s dark.

“When I got to his car I saw an ambulance so I ran over. “I asked the young paramedic ‘are you here for my husband?’ and she said ‘he’s gone’ so I said ‘right, okay but where, which hospital?’

“She told me ‘no he’s dead’. “The poor girl thought the police had already told me and I just hadn’t processed it.

“She didn’t know she was breaking it to me. “I just screamed and can’t remember anything else about that night.”

Andrea said when Andy became ill, two of his running-mates ran down to get the defibrillator from outside the Hare and Hounds pub while the other
three were working on him until paramedics arrived.

A later inquest recorded Andy’s cause of death as natural causes from myocardial insufficiency brought on by heart disease. “You wouldn’t think looking at him he had any health issues,” Andrea said.

“The heart disease was undiagnosed. He was very, very active and ultra-fit and that kind of cardiac disease is normally found in bigger or older people.
“He was fit as anything, felt no twinges and didn’t feel ill but tests after he’d died showed his left ventricle was blocked.”

Andy’s popularity was confirmed when around 300 people attended his funeral at Worsley Road United Reformed Church and then the couple’s ‘local’ The White Horse.

Andrea has welcomed the installation of the defibrillator at the monument.
She said: “I wanted to tell his story because it might just prevent another family from going through this.

“Restart The Heart do fantastic work and if there was a defibrillator closer to him he would have stood a better chance.” The volunteer-led charity has installed more than 40 community-accessible defibrillators across the region and the next is being installed  at Holcombe Tower next week.

Sarah Jones, the founder of Restart the Heart, said: “It was Andy’s tragic and unfortunate death which kick started this project and we’re very grateful for Andrea and the family’s support.

“This installation is particularly significant due to the tower’s remote location on the moors, an area popular with walkers, runners, and families –
yet previously without immediate access to life-saving equipment in the event of a cardiac arrest.”

She added that the project had only been possible thanks to the support of the Ramsbottom community and a one-of-a-kind fundraiser involving Manchester-based YouTuber CodenamePizza, who streamed live playing Call of Duty and Black ops 6 while walking a marathon on a treadmill to raise the necessary funds.