Despair as care Bill is withdrawn

Devon campaigners have reacted with disappointment after a bill calling for automatic screening for young people from families with a history of sudden and unexplained death was withdrawn. 

A Private Member’s Bill was due to get its Second Reading by Dari Taylor yesterday but she withdrew it when Public Health Minister, Melanie Johnson, announced plans to set up an advisory group to help tackle sudden cardiac death in the young. 

Wonford mother Donna Pyle said she was dismayed by the news.  Mrs Pyle’s husband, Andy, died of Sudden Adult Death Syndrome on March 17, 2000, aged just 32. 

Since then, Mrs Pyle, of Shakespeare Road, has been trying to get her sons Jake, nine, and Jamie, five, to undergo genetic tests to see if they have a condition.

She said: “I was watching the coverage of the announcement on television and it made me quite angry. 

“An advisory panel was not what we wanted, but I suppose it has gone some way to acknowledging what a devastating effect sudden adult death can have on families.” 

The health minister said the advisory group would help raise awareness of the condition and advise the Department of Health on policy. 

It could also lead to new guidelines for doctors, setting out standards and models of care when treating or monitoring such conditions. 

Voluntary and professional organisations, including Cardiac Risk in the Young (CRY) and the British Cardiac Society, will be invited to join.

Kathy Moyle, from East Budleigh, who has lost four relatives to the syndrome, was another Devon backer of the Bill, which had the support of a number of sports personalities.