Jeremy Cole was just 14 when he died from sudden cardiac death at his home in Victoria Drive. 

His mother Jenny is now backing a nationwide campaign to raise awareness of the condition. 

Every week, eight young people die from sudden cardiac death but campaigners say these deaths could be prevented if simple cardiac screening was more widely available. 

Cavendish pupil Jeremy was a perfectly healthy, normal teenager who, almost without warning, dropped dead at the family home. 

Mrs Cole reckons every parent in the country needs to know about the condition and she is supporting a national charity, Cardiac Risk in the Young (CRY). 

The charity has produced a thought-provoking new postcard, which features the faces of eight young people who lost their lives suddenly to previously undetected heart conditions. 

The postcards will be circulated to CRY supporters and around the south east. 

The aim is for people to send the postcards to MPs to encourage them to add their support to the campaign and join the charity’s All Party Parliamentary Group, which will, in turn, lobby for a national screening programme.  

Mrs Cole explained to the Herald the tragic circumstances behind Jeremy’s sudden death in October 1995. 

She said: "I had just taken his sister to Oxford.  I had driven her there for her first day at university and when I got home I found Jeremy had dropped dead – just half an hour before I got home. 

"He had fainted twice just months before his death and we now know these were warning signs. 

"The first time was at school and he was sent to the A&E department at the DGH, where he was examined and they sent him home with a clean bill of health. 

"They said it was just a faint and there was nothing to worry about. 

"The second faint happened in June, three months before he died.  On that occasion he had just cycled home one evening and fainted. 

"We didn’t take him to hospital because he came round quite quickly, but I knew something wasn’t right." 

Mrs Cole made an appointment to take Jeremy to his GP, but tragically he died the day before he was due to see him. 

However, it was unlikely the family doctor would have known Jeremy had an underlying heart condition. 

But Jeremy’s heart problem could have been picked up if an ECG test had been taken for evidence of the specific condition he suffered from. 

Mrs Cole said, "Sadly ours is not a one-off case and I have heard many stories which are very similar and it’s all too common a situation. 

"Sudden death syndrome can’t be cured but it can be treated and sudden death can be avoided which is why it’s so important to have a national screening programme. 

"It’s a hereditary condition and once there is a death in the family the rest of the family can be screened and treated if necessary. 

"We need to make every parent more aware of this condition because if people know about the condition we can look for it and treat it. 

"I liken the situation to meningitis because not so many years ago, people didn’t know about that. 

"Now parents know what symptoms to look for and a national screening programme has been set up." 

Through fundraising effort, the Cole family has been able to give the DGH two ECG machines, and a third ECG machine to the GP surgery in Enys Road.