Cunningham's brother biking to raise money, awareness for cardiac arrest

Ryan Cunningham looked at what his brother had endured -- the sudden cardiac arrest while on the ice as a member of the Tucson Roadrunners in the American Hockey League on Nov. 19, 2016, the operations and complications that led to the amputation of a portion of his left leg, the loss of his hockey career -- and he wanted to help.

He wanted to raise money. He wanted to raise awareness. But he didn't want to do it in a small way, with a minor effort on his part. He wanted, instead, to do something big, something that would be commensurate with what Craig Cunningham had been through.
He decided to get on his bike and ride -- all the way from Castlegar, British Columbia, to Tucson, Arizona.
"Watching what he went through, the obstacles he overcame, I wanted to do justice to the spirit he had shown," Ryan Cunningham said last week from Idaho Falls, Idaho, five days into the ride. "I had to pick something that was just way beyond my reach at the time."
Ryan Cunningham, 29, began training in February after not riding consistently for the past six years. He started on Aug. 3 with a plan to ride the 1,646 miles in 16 days, traveling about 124 miles per day, factoring in two potential recovery days. He reached Circleville, Utah on Sunday and said he plans to enter Arizona in two days.
He will do this while raising money for the Craig Cunningham All Heart Foundation and
chronicling his journey on Facebook
. The foundation was established by Craig Cunningham and his doctor, Zain Khalpey, to help prevent sudden cardiac arrest.
As of Monday, Ryan Cunningham had raised $23,510 of his $50,000 goal according to his
GoFundMe page
, not including $5,000 each from the Arizona Coyotes and Roadrunners foundations.

"It's obviously a huge sacrifice and commitment," said Craig Cunningham, who played 63 NHL games with the Boston Bruins and Coyotes. "I think in talking to him, he just saw everything that went on in the hospital, but not only what I went through, but how all the doctors and nurses and the hospital took care of me and how hard they worked.
"[Cardiac screening] has been the same for years now and no one's doing anything different, and we want to do something different that's going to make a difference and my brother just jumped on board."
Craig Cunningham, 27, said the foundation is working to fund development of an app that connects to a heart rate monitor worn on the wrist. The app would track heart rate variability and would flag irregularities and alert a doctor, who can assess the situation.
"We're hoping they're going to be able to predict sudden cardiac arrest before it happens," Craig Cunningham said.
That could save lives.
That's why Ryan Cunningham is riding this week, even with the August heat beating down on him through Utah and into Arizona. The timing might not have been optimal but given that his fiancée Ellen Clark is a teacher and is driving behind him to provide support through the trip, he had limited options.
Craig Cunningham and their mother, Heather, will also join up with the ride halfway through.
The ride has not been without its challenges. On the third day, Aug. 5, Cunningham opted to take I-90, rather than the Hiawatha Trail, from Mullan, Idaho to Missoula, Montana. He got 10 flat tires and spent most of his day repairing his bike on the side of the interstate.
At one point, he started walking his bike along the route, hoping he could attract the attention of someone. He got lucky. A couple of cyclists, who had a pump, pulled over, giving him CO2 cartridges and a new tube.
He eventually made it 109 miles that day.
It was frustrating, but nothing compared to what his brother has gone through.
Craig Cunningham had multiple setbacks during his recovery, including with his prosthesis and after his amputation. His brother watched him focus not on the difficulties of his situation, not on what could have been, but what was in his control.
The Coyotes hired Craig Cunningham last season to scout. This season he will add to his duties with some time in Tucson working with the Roadrunners, trying out the player development side of the game.
"One thing he does really well is he doesn't look back," said Ryan Cunningham, who remains on target to arrive in Tucson on Aug. 18. "It would be so painful to be like, yeah, I was captain of an AHL team and I was teetering on the brink of breaking into the NHL. It would just hurt so much to sit and wonder what it would have taken, how close you were to breaking into the League. He doesn't dwell and he doesn't look back."
That's especially true now as Craig Cunningham finds the balance of what he can and cannot do given his amputation and prosthesis, as he tries to gain a foothold in the NHL in a different role than he anticipated, as he works with his foundation to raise money and help others.

Because the idea is to enable others to avoid what he went through, even if it takes a thousand miles through the hot August sun on a bike.
"Any dollar helps -- it doesn't matter if it's $1 or $5,000," Craig Cunningham said. "Look at what this kid's willing to do to promote sudden cardiac arrest screening. I think a lot of people don't really realize the risk of sudden cardiac arrest and how often it happens.
"They're going to see this kid ride [2,650 kilometers] in the middle of summer through the desert for the cause and I think that's going to be an eye-opener. It's all about raising awareness and sometimes you have to go to extremes for people to understand what is actually going on."