“My boys are going to come home from school one day having learned CPR“

The Paul Lynas Memorial Fundraising Group has helped raise over £70,000 for the British Heart Foundation.

How one group of friends and four golf days have helped fund two defibrillators and educate thousands of youngsters on how to perform CPR.

Our Drive for Defibs campaign is brought to you in association with Motocaddy

Ally Fleming never expected to become one of the British Heart Foundation’s biggest and most loyal supporters. He had never even run a charity event until five years ago and once described the prospect of raising £10,000 as “wishful thinking”. Today, though, he is thinking big and daring to dream about hitting 10 times that amount in donations.

He’s become something of an expert in this field, so much so that his work has raised four separate motions in Scottish Parliament.

Together with a group of friends, he set up the Paul Lynas Memorial Fundraising Group in 2018 which has helped generate over £70,000 for the British Heart Foundation, of which £4,000 has already been spent on two defibrillators which now serve local communities in West Lothian.

RELATED: What is the Drive for Defibs campaign?

He drives past the life-saving devices each week, often on his way to Uphall Golf Club in Livingston, which has become a base for an annual charity golf day the group run.

This year will be the fourth, which serves to celebrate the life of Ally’s brother-in-law Paul Lynas, who passed away from a cardiac arrest in September 2017. He was aged just 37.

“He had no underlying health or heart issues, that’s the scary thing,” explains Ally. “I performed CPR on Paul for 10 to 15 minutes, something like that, until the emergency services arrived but we couldn’t bring him back.

“We wanted to do something to honour his memory and knowing that he was such a keen golfer, I got together with a few mates and that’s when we came up with the idea to host a golf day. None of us really knew what we were doing but we put it out on Facebook and that’s when it grew into this big thing.”

After selling out in a matter of weeks, the first golf day generated around £10,500 for the British Heart Foundation, who responded in kind. Four months later, Ally was invited to speak at the Scottish National Party conference in Glasgow as part of the British Heart Foundation’s ‘Nation Of Lifesavers’ campaign, designed to teach CPR to every secondary school pupil in Scotland.

Ally, 42, doesn’t like to speculate about how much of an impact his speech had, but the bill was passed in March 2019 and is now helping to create an army of 50,000 lifesavers every year.

“My little boys are going to come home from school one day having learned CPR, and it’s because of that campaign,” he says, excitedly. “That’s really what this is all about; it’s not just about the money we’ve raised. We want to keep Paul’s story alive, to raise awareness, and to support campaigns so we can avoid families going through what we went through.”

In 2020, the group were presented with a national award for ‘Fundraising In The Community’ at the Heart Hero Awards, in recognition of their efforts, which are still ongoing today. This year more than 280 people are expected to attend the Paul Lynas Charity Golf Day and they already have big plans for where that money will go.  

“We are definitely going to fund another defibrillator later this year,” he says. “Uphall Golf Club lost its clubhouse and defibrillator to a fire in February 2021, so that’s definitely in the back of our minds. It feels like it would be the right thing to do, to fund one for them, because of the support they’ve given us.”

If you’ve got a story that you’d like to be told, you’re hosting a fundraising event inspired by our campaign, or your golf club has recently installed a defibrillator, get in touch with us, here.

Motocaddy’s GPS app, which includes CPR guidance, AED locator and emergency contacts, is free to download on iOS and Android devices from the Apple App Store and on Google Play.

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About the author

Michael Catling – Features Editor

Michael Catling is Today’s Golfer‘s Features Editor and an award-winning journalist who specializes in golf’s Majors and Tours, including DP World, PGA, LPGA, and LIV.

Michael joined Today’s Golfer in 2016 and has traveled the world to attend the game’s biggest events and secure exclusive interviews with dozens of Major champions, including Jack Nicklaus, Jordan Spieth, Tom Watson, Greg Norman, Gary Player, and Justin Thomas.

A former member of Ufford Park and Burghley Park, Michael has been playing golf since he was 11 and currently plays off a handicap of 10.

Away from golf he’s a keen amateur chef and has his own healthy recipes website. He also loves playing squash, going to the gym, and following Chelsea FC.

Michael uses a Ping G driver, Ping G 3-wood, Ping G Crossover 3-iron, Ping G Series irons (4-PW), Ping Glide wedges (52º, 56º, 60º), TaylorMade MySpider Tour Putter, and Srixon AD333 golf ball.

Get in touch with Michael via email and follow him on Twitter.