STAFF and students at Dawlish College have raised more than £4,500 for a charity which aims to tackle the rate of sudden cardiac death among young people.

The college has handed over a cheque for £4,643.82 to Newton Abbot-based charity Jay’s Aim after a year of fund-raising events.

Dan Osbourne, whose brother Jay died suddenly aged 28 of an undiagnosed heart condition, is a teacher at the college and his family set up the charity after Jay’s death.

The college raised the total with a number of fundraising initiatives throughout the year including both staff and students.

In April 2023 six brave members of staff completed tandem sky dives from 15,000ft at Dunkeswell Airport.

Seven different members of staff then took part in the Plymouth 10K and Half Marathon at the start of May.

Students in each of the college’s five year groups then had their own opportunity to get involved by completing the ‘Jay’s Aim Mile’ - a sponsored walk/run around the college site of a least one mile.

Taking place on a sunny day in June, the event was a real success with a number of students making the mile more challenging by adding extra elements such as wearing fancy dress, walking backwards, or playing musical instruments as they ran.

Students contributed further to the total with a number of ‘non-uniform’ days across the year and by holding fundraising events such as cake sales during break times.

On receiving the cheque from the college, Simon Osborne, one of the trustees of Jay’s Aim commented: ‘We are absolutely blown away by the fantastic efforts of everyone involved in the fundraising at Dawlish College.

‘Not only have they raised an incredible amount of money, but it looks like they have had a lot of fun doing it.

‘The money raised will go towards providing more public access defibrillators, free to attend CPR and defibrillator training sessions, and cardiac screenings for young people across the south west.’