PREMIER LEAGUE Brentford have launched Thousands of Stories, a new series of short films sharing the stories of the club’s community. The series kicks off with the first of four films, The Pressure, which sees the spotlight on Brentford head coach, Thomas Frank and cardiac health.
The series focuses on the stories that make up the club from staff, fans and the wider community. Thousands of Stories aims to show how each person’s story is special and important in shaping the club.
The first film, The Pressure, looks at the stress of being a Premier League manager as Thomas Frank wears a heart rate monitor throughout the day of the club’s 2022/23 home fixture against West Ham. The film explores the importance of cardiac health and motivations behind the club’s Heart of West London initiative. Viewers discover how Frank’s heart fluctuates in reaction to pivotal elements during the football match, including substitutions and VAR decisions.
We want to hear the stories of our fans too who help make this club so special
Brentford chief executive, Jon Varney
Reflecting on the experience, Frank said: “I was interested to see how my heart reacted during a match. Every Head Coach knows that Premier League football is stressful and it’s amazing to see what happened to my heart rate during match events.
“I am proud to be part of the heart health campaigns we run here at Brentford. Knowing what happened to Robert Rowan and Christian Eriksen makes it something that really matters to me. Cardiac health is important for everyone and it’s important we do what we can be lead a healthy lifestyle and look after ourselves.”
Three further films in Thousands of Stories will be released across the next three weeks:
- The Team looks at the impact of the Brentford Community Sports Trust’s women’s recreational football sessions and the opportunity it gives to women who want to play football at a non-professional level
- The Chance explores the story of Brentford staff member, Mariia Manirko who moved to the UK from Ukraine after Russia’s invasion
- The Voice follows the story Peter Gilham, Brentford’s club announcer, also known as Mr Brentford
The four films were produced by creative agency, Studio Something. Thousands of Stories is expected to be an ongoing series and along with its launch, the club is encouraging Bees fans to share their stories.
Brentford chief executive, Jon Varney said: “Here at Brentford, everyone’s story is important, from our fans to our matchday staff to those involved in our community projects.
‘We’re really proud to see the launch of Thousands of Stories. It’s the start of a series that allows us to share what it means to be a part of Brentford. And the series doesn’t stop here, we want to hear the stories of our fans too who help make this club so special.”
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Heart health is so very important.
My story is not about my heart health, but that of two of my daughters, both of whom developed heart conditions that will be with them for the rest of their lives and who both now have defibrillator implants.
Both Emma and Clare were elite athletes and both represented Australia in Athletics and Triathlon. Emma was a multiple world triathlon champion and world # 1 and Clare was a Junior world triathlon champion, which she won the same day Emma won her first world championship. Both ran in the same Australian Athletics team in the World cross Country Championships.
Both were extremely fit – and still are, despite the defibrillator implants.
Emma’s heart condition was probably initially caused by racing at the Cleveland Triathlon World Championship race in 1996 when she had a bad virus. She won silver when she was the red hot favourite. She started the 1997 Wold series of races with a second place, didn’t feel “right”, so she trained harder and won every other race in 1997. She struggled through the Australian series of races, was national champion again, but still, did not feel “right”, without putting her finger on what the issue was.
Emma continued to train to a very intense level. The 1998 season started well with an easy victory in Japan, but then short periods of brief exhaustion in races affected her results.
Emma continued to race until she suffered a near death experience in Edmonton, Canada when she was saved by paramedics who defibrillated her back to life at the side of a road where she had collapsed after a training session.
Clare, younger than Emma, never reached the heights of Emma because despite her enormous ability regularly felt fatigued in both training and racing. Clare retired without achieving her sporting goals, but like Emma, still trained regularly. During a swim session in Melbourne, Australia, she lost consciousness in the pool, was fished out and given CPR until paramedics arrived who used a defibrillator numerous times, without apparent success. Clare was revived in Hospital and spent three days in an induced Coma in ICU. Miraculously she survived without any brain damage after being clinically dead for around 15 minutes, all due to the pool life guards and paramedics applying CPR.
So, two extremely healthy and fit young women suffered near fatal heart episodes. Without their fitness, paramedics, CPR and defibrillators they would not be here today. The importance of close availability of defibrillators at every sporting venue, public places, offices, etc, cannot be underestimated nor can knowledge of how to apply CPR.
Likewise a healthy diet, healthy lifestyle is so important.
People are regularly dying unexpectedly unaware of, or dismissing symptoms that can save lives. My wife and I had no idea of the dangers of death of both Emma and Clare due to heart conditions, nor did the experts at the Australian Institute of Sport and Doctors that were close to both Emma and Clare.
What surprised me was the lack of understanding and the ability of everyone close to Emma and Clare (including me) to recognise the onset of their heart conditions.
You don’t need to be a sportsperson to suffer from a heart condition, so there must be better awareness amongst the whole community and more knowledge of how to administer CPR and more defibrillators readily available with people trained in how to use them.
Good on you Brentford for taking up this issue.
I am not a random Aussie who stumbled across the Brentford website, I have followed Brentford since I first attended with my dad in 1954 – and my Dad had supported Brentford since the late 1920’s, being locally born in Isleworth.