A year ago today, 27-year-old keep fit fanatic Pete Reynolds was found dead.  The last thing friends and family suspected was that he had a heart defect.  Now his girlfriend and parents are highlighting his death as a national charity launches a regional campaign to raise awareness of Sudden Adult Death.

It’s a phone call that Becky will remember for ever – when she spoke to the love of her life for the last time.  Pete Reynolds, her handsome boyfriend of two years, had called her the night before complaining of dizziness, heart palpitations and a burning throat.   She had asked him if he wanted to come to her house, but he said he was feeling too poorly. 

Becky had told him: “You should go to bed and rest up.  I’ll speak to you in the morning.” 

But the next morning she received a different kind of phone call, one from Pete’s brother Andy.  He said Pete hadn’t turned up for work and asked whether she knew where he was.  The conversation filled her with fear and she hurried to his house in Southmead.  She had also managed to contact Pete’s best friend – also called Andy – who met her at the house along with Rebecca, Pete’s brother’s girlfriend, who had also been alerted. 

Becky let them in with the key Pete had given her but she was too terrified of what she might find so Andy and Rebecca went upstairs to investigate.  They found Pete lying dead on the floor at the end of his bed. 

Becky aged 27, who lives in Henleaze and works in public relations, said: “I couldn’t really focus.  I was hysterical.  Right from the point that Pete’s brother called me, I knew he was in trouble. 

“I am just so glad that I was, and still am, close to Pete’s family because we have all helped each other through it. 

“He was at the height of his fitness and had so much to live for. 

“But he died because we didn’t know he had some sort of heart problem.  We would never have known either, because there is currently no screening for it.” 

It is over this issue that Pete’s family and Becky believe they can make some sense of his death and that some good can come from it. 

Today, the faces of eight people who died due to undetected heart conditions will appear on a postcard produced as part of a regional campaign to raise awareness of what is known as Sudden Adult Death (SAD).  It is part of a national programme launched by Cardiac Risk in the Young (CRY) earlier this year to highlight sudden cardiac death in the young. 

Now CRY has launched its South West campaign, which is being supported by Becky and Pete’s mum Anne, dad Alf and brother Andy. 

Anne said: “There are no words to explain how you feel as a parent when you hear your child has died. 

“There is nothing, apart from the life of my other son, that I wouldn’t give to have him back.  We now feel that we have to try to limit the number of people who die in circumstances such as Pete’s – and that’s where CRY comes in. 

“Not only have they been a great support to us, but they are also committed to campaigning for an echocardiogram screening programme that can prevent some deaths happening. 

“Whether screening would have helped Pete, we’ll never know.  The post mortem found he didn’t have an ounce of fat on him, he’d never smoked and he had an active, healthy lifestyle.  It goes to show that if it can happen to him, it can happen to anyone. 

Alison Cox, CRY founder and chief executive, said: “Today marks a real milestone in our campaign to raise awareness of sudden death in young people.  By showing just some of the faces behind the stories we hear 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 – usually without warning. 

“Yet these eight faces on the postcard – representing eight such lives lost each 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 MPs as possible to make sure we can prevent other families from experiencing such tragic losses.