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The parents of a Crewe teenager who died suddenly
in his sleep have launched a campaign to raise awareness of the mystery
condition which killed him.
Daniel Boughey, 14, died the day after his family
had been filmed for an episode of Channel 4's hit reality show Wife Swap
at their home in Alton Street at Crewe.
It is believed he was a victim of the little known
illness Sudden Arrhythmic Death Syndrome (SADS).
His mother Karen Reece, 35, and her husband Daren,
38, have appeared on national TV in a bid to raise awareness of the
condition.
They are now calling for all teenagers to be
screened for all underlying heart problems to stop this happening again.
Mrs Reece said: "Something needs to be done to
make sure this does not happen again.
'I am not sleeping and when I do I struggle to get
out of bed in the morning. I am so scared it will happen again to one
of my other children who are aged nine and 17. We need to tests
teenagers to raise awareness of SADS.'
SADS is a rare condition caused by an undetected
heart defect which can often take pathologists months to confirm after
someone's death.
Many of the heart defects are hereditary and
family members are only screened after the loss of a sibling, child or
parent.
Mr and Mrs Reece are now aiming to raise funds for
heart charity Cardiac Risk in the Young (CRY) which is campaigning for
screening to detect the cardiac abnormalities.
SADS claims the lives of at least eight apparently
fit and healthy people under the age of 30 every week and there re 400
reported deaths nationally as a result of the condition each year.
Alison Cox, chief executive of CRY said: "These
deaths are the cutting edge of grief. It is incomprehensible to people
when someone who is fit and healthy and young can die when they've not shown
any detectable symptoms.
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