A national postcard campaign calling for cardiac screening for young people was launched yesterday by a mother whose son died from unsuspected heart problems. 

Caroline Gard, from Frinton, was devastated when her son Andy died in 1997 – two days before his 18^th birthday. 

Since then she has tirelessly worked for Cardiac Risk in the Young (CRY) in the hope of stopping other families suffering a similar tragedy. 

And yesterday, the charity unveiled a postcard featuring the photos of eight young people who lost their lives suddenly to prev8iously undetected heart conditions. 

The east of England has been selected as the latest venue in the charity’s lobbying tour, highlighting the traffic 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 ad 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 were made more accessible. 

The postcards will be handed out to the public for them to send to local MPs calling for support in the charity’s campaign for more cardiac screening for the under-35’s. 

Mrs Gard is CRY’s divisional representative in the east of England and also runs the first CRY ECG testing clinic from Colchester General Hospital.