Pressure to raise awareness

A mother whose son died suddenly two days before his 18^th birthday is to launch a national campaign calling for cardiac screening for young people tomorrow. 

Caroline Gard, of Frinton, was devastated when her son Andy died in 1997 due to heart problems.  Since then she has tirelessly worked for Cardiac Risk in the Young (CRY) in the hope of stopping other families suffering a similar tragedy. 

Tomorrow, the charity is unveiling a postcard featuring the photos of eight young people who lost their lives suddenly to previously undetected heart conditions.  The postcard will be handed out to the public for them to send to their local MPs calling for their support in the charity’s campaign for more cardiac screening for the under 35’s. 

The East of England has been selected as the latest venue in the charity’s hard-hitting, lobbying tour, highlighting the tragic condition known as sudden cardiac death in the young.  The eight victims pictured – who all came from the East of England – had no apparent symptoms or history of bad health. 

Yet it is widely acknowledged that many of the hundreds of sudden deaths which occur every year in the UK could be prevented if simple cardiac screening was made more accessible.

Mrs Gard, CRY’s divisional representative in the East of England, also runs the first CRY ECG testing clinic from Colchester General Hospital, will be addressing the launch. 

The pioneering Colchester clinic was driven forward by Mrs Gard, whose campaigning also led to a landmark ruling in North Essex which how grants approval for specialist cardiac screening (provided by CRY) to be carried out at schools throughout the area. 

The charity hopes to extend such ethical approval across the rest of England and to increase accessibility to this life-saving service among young people. 

Chief Executive and Founder of the charity, Alison Cox, Said: “By showing just some of the faces behind the stories we read and hear about all too often we can help people begin to understand the heartbreak caused by this cruel killer and highlight the fact that it can happen to anyone, at any time. 

“Yet these eight faces, representing the eight lives lost a week in the UK, show just a snap-shot of the problem.  We need to keep up the pressure and engage support from as many MP’s as possible to make sure we can prevent other families from experiencing such tragic losses.”