Dad takes on two marathons in memory of his Sheffield student daughter who died aged 20

Dwayne Poyser is running both the London and Manchester marathons in April of this year, having set himself the challenge when his daughter Lauryn Taylor-Poyser sadly passed away in February 2021 at the age of 20.

Lauryn was born with dilated cardiomyopathy, a condition that means the heart becomes enlarged and cannot pump properly, and she was in and out of hospital and on heart failure medication for most of her short life.

Lauryn was able to lead a relatively normal life other than having regular hospital visits to assess progress.

However, when she was 18 her condition deteriorated and she was placed on the urgent heart transplant list. She had the transplant on April 26, 2019.

“Over the course of the next 22 months Lauryn was doing well,” said Dwayne.

“She had already achieved great A-level results despite everything and was offered a place at Sheffield Hallam University to study photography.”

Lauryn started her course at Sheffield, made lots of friends and was getting great feedback from her tutors. However, tragically, on February 7, 2021, Lauryn fell asleep for the last time.

“It was absolutely devastating. Lauryn was such a resilient, strong person and was loving being a young independent woman and university life,” her dad said.

“As a family it was so tough. A very hard, emotional time for us all, as it would be for any family.”

Dwayne was a casual runner before Lauryn’s transplant but he took it up more seriously after her operation as he wanted to give something back. He is now looking forward to racing in the Manchester and London marathons, as well as running The Great North Run in Newcastle in September.

Dwayne said he had chosen to fundraise for The BHF because of the “incredible work they do” funding researchers who are trying to find new cures and treatments for heart and circulatory diseases.

“When something has personally affected you, when you have the connection…well, I could run for any charity but it was heart disease that took Lauryn,” he said.

BHF events manager Ellie Mynes said taking part in two marathons so close together to raise money for the charity was a wonderful way for Dwayne to honour the memory of his daughter.

“She sounds like an amazing young woman,” said Ellie. “Losing Lauryn must have been incredibly hard for all of her family so we’re really grateful to Dwayne for taking on these runs for the British Heart Foundation. I am sure Lauryn would have been proud of him, but also happy to know that the funds he raises will go towards important research into heart disease to help people like her.

“Good luck Dwayne – all of us here at Team BHF will be cheering you on every step of the way.”

You can donate and support Dwayne here.

There are still BHF places available for both the London and Manchester marathons – find out more about these and other runs on the BHF website here.