Family and friends of a rugby player who died of a sudden cardiac arrest during the Bristol Half Marathon are running the Great North Run in his memory, aiming to raise awareness and funds for heart-health charities. Jon Devereux, 28, collapsed while competing in the Bristol event in May 2025 and could not be revived; his death was attributed to Sudden Adult Death Syndrome, a poorly understood condition that stops the heart's electrical function and affects roughly 500 young people in the UK each year.

On Sunday, Jon's parents Linda and Stuart, both 63, along with ten other relatives and friends, will take on the 13-mile course in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, a city with strong personal significance for Jon from his student days playing in the Newcastle Falcons development squad. The group is fundraising for Cardiac Risk in the Young and the Matt Hampson Foundation. Jon, who worked as a marketing and events manager for Red Bull's F1 team and played for Chester RUFC, Tynedale RFC and Old Albanian RFC, is remembered by his mother and close friends Louis Rigg and Harry Huxtable as an energetic, sociable figure whose loss has been eased partly through shared training and remembrance.