The lives of young people who die every day from undetected heart conditions could be saved in the future.

A Bill, which is due for its second hearing in Parliament soon, proposes the screening of all young people who have had family members die suddenly from heart conditions they did not know they had.

It comes after pressure form the charity Cardiac Risk in the Young (CRY) with the support of Bolton Southeast MP Dr Brian Iddon.

Dr Iddon said: “It just shows how important these small charities are to bring possible legislation like this to the floor to be debated.

“This condition is present in some people who do a lot of sport and who don’t know that their condition will kill them.  If those people were to have tests if the condition was suspected, and for that person’s family to undergo tests, the risk to families would be cut”

Sudden cardiac death claims up to eight lives of apparently young healthy people in this country every week.  The condition claimed the life of Manchester City footballer Marc Vivien-Foe, aged 28, who died on the pitch as he represented Cameroon last summer.

Ex-footballer Terry Yorath, father of television presenter Gabby Logan, suffered the death of his 15-year-old son Daniel from an unknown heart condition as he played football in his back garden.

CRY has set up six pioneering new clinics across the UK to test for the condition.

Chief Executive and Founder of CRY, Alison Cox said: “Sudden death in young people can no longer be ignored by health professionals or the Government and this is a great chance for us, as a campaigning charity, to raise the profile of this  condition.  It can affect anyone which is why it’s so vital to have national action in addition to the clinics we’ve set up.”

The charity believes that many such deaths could be avoided if basic cardiac screening was more widely available.