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 Nigel
Edgar
went to bed feeling a bit off colour. He never woke up. That was in 1998 and
since then his young widow Amanda and two children Jane and James have had to
face life on their own. The death certificate of the 33-year-old postman states
he died from natural causes.
Amanda
is not alone. On average four people a week die from little known complaint
called Sudden Death Syndrome. It strikes apparently healthy people without
warning, like Mr Edgar who was an active person. Amanda described her last night
with her husband. She said: “Monday was Nigel’s day off. He said that he
didn’t feel very well, and would have an early evening. I woke up in the
middle of the night and I thought he was snoring, but he was taking his last
breaths.”
It
is a horrifying way for anyone to lose a loved one but what was worse was
finding out that Nigel didn’t need to die.
Sudden
Death Syndrome is an umbrella term used to describe all instant deaths among the
under 35s. The majority of cases are due to inherited heart abnormalities which
could be treated if detected by an electrocardiogram (ECG) which records the
electronic signals from the heart, or an echocardiogram which looks at the
structure of the heart and the valves.
These
two tests could save hundreds of lives a year. They are already routinely used
in Italy. Every athlete is required to get an annual fitness certificate before
they are permitted to participate in any event. Sports clubs and schools have to
take responsibility for their students’ fitness to participate.
But
this does not happen in Britain and the deaths keep happening. There are many
teenage high level athletes who have been killed by the disease. Daniel Yorath,
aged 15, died having a kick about in the garden with his dad. Daniel had just
signed for Leeds United.
Ian
Bell, another footballer, aged 16, had just signed for Hartlepool and died
during a game
Adrian
Hawkins, aged 22, a cyclist who was short-listed for the Barcelona Olympic
Cycling Squad, died two weeks later after winning a major race. Laura Moss, aged
13, a junior swimmer on the elite Olympic Swim 2000 squad, died warming up at a
school swimming gala. The list goes on - young fit and healthy people dying for
want of a screening programme.
The mystery
disease has been described as adult cot death as many people die like Nigel in
their sleep.
Taking part
in sport does not cause a heart attack but can cause death by exacerbating an
underlying problem that already exists.
Alison Cox
founded a group called Cardiac Risk in the Young (CRY) after her son Steve was
diagnosed with a heart condition. CRY aims to introduce nationwide cardiac
screening at school and club level for all young people.
In the last
four years CRY have funded an echocardiogram machine at St George’s Hospital,
Tooting which has so far screened over 10,000 people, donated a mobile screening
van, developed and funded ECG machines and training programmes for volunteers
and had an accredited CRY counselling course.
CRY are also
the backbone of support for families who have lost loved ones to this silent
killer. Amanda has found their help invaluable, as she says unless you have been
through it yourself you can not understand how it feels.
Amanda moved
from Harrogate to Wetherby soon after Nigel’s death to be closer to her
parents Neil and Anne Cameron, and her sister and brother in law Linda and Jason
Ewen.
Now, nearly
three years after Nigel’s death, Amanda is raising funds so she can attend the
CRY counselling course. This will enable her to help others who are going
through the same suffering.
Amanda says
how lucky she has been to receive the support and help from her family and
employers at the Temple Hewitt Partnership and now wants to give something back.
It will cost
£1,000 for Amanda to attend the course in Surrey and so far she has received
support from local businesses and Deighton Gates School.
James, aged
eight, and Jane, seven, attend the school and a bun sale will take place there
on July 13 at 10.30, as well as a come-as-you-please day.
The death of
someone you love is hard to deal with at any time. It is hard for Amanda to he
left alone and for Jane and James.
It is even
harder when that life could have been saved by simple test. As Amanda says:
“There is nothing I can do to bring Nigel back again, but if through the
counselling course I can help other people then his death has not been for
nothing.”
sophie.mccandlish@
rim.co.uk
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