Hundreds of young people attended a potentially life saving heart screening event organised in memory of a Midland fitness instructor.

Zoe Teale died from Sudden Adult Death Syndrome - or SADS - at her home in Cheslyn Hay, Staffordshire, In September 2009.  She was only 23. 

Moments before she died, Zoe, who worked tirelessly for the British Heart Foundation and had a degree in Sports at the University of Birmingham, had been sharing a laugh and a joke with her father, Peter. 

Her devastated family decided to set up the Zoe Teale Memorial Fund, which has raised more than £37,000 so far, to urge young people to get screened for undetected heart defects. 

Mr Teale, who is now the Birmingham and Black Country representative for the charity Cardiac Risk in the Young, or CRY, was at a mass screening event at Aston Villa football club over the weekend where young adults, aged between 14 and 35, underwent an electrocardiogram or ECG testing. 

The memorial fund helped to provide the 240 free tests for visitors. 

Peter Teale, aged 49, from Harborne, said: "The ECG takes less than 10 minutes.  The machine looks at the heart's rhythm and if there are any abnormalities, they will have an echogram, which will look into the heart's workings. 

"Anything more serious will be fast-tracked to the doctor for further tests. 

"Around 10 per cent of tests carried out on the day will need an echogram. 

"In the past we have found minor and major defects in the heart. 

"We want the West Midlands to know about this - we never knew until it was too late." 

Mr Teale said his wife Julie, aged 48, a manager, and his other daughter Meghan, 23, a hairdresser, were trying to spread news about screening as a way of coping with their grief. 

Mr Teale said: "The work we do as a family and our friends is helping us to get through. 

"Zoe would have been here if her defect had been tested." 

There are plans for another screening at the end of the year.