A mother whose sports son Andrew died of a heart attack just days from his 18th birthday wants to get more students checked out. 

Caroline Gard, who has been at the forefront of a heart screening initiative, is hoping to get between 800 and 1,000 students at Tendring Technology College tested. 

It would make the college, with sites at Frinton and Thorpe, only the second state school in the country to offer free heart checks to all of its Year 10, 11 and 12 pupils. 

Mrs Gard, 53, of Glebe Way, Frinton, who is Eastern Division representative for Cry - Cardiac Risk in the Young - said: "Before it was for a few kids, now it would be for all of them." 

If successful, it is hoped to extend the testing initiative to Tendring's other secondary schools. 

The initiative is being paid for by the remaining funds raised in a campaign to buy monitoring equipment which was launched by the Gard family following their son's death in 1997. 

The college, which Andrew Gard attended, provided the venue for more than 40 young people to undergo ECG and Echo testing in 1999. 

Every week, eight apparently fit and healthy young people die from undiagnosed heart conditions which could have been revealed. 

Mrs Gard stressed the number of young people affected and highlighted the number of footballers and athletes who mysteriously die. 

Last month, Spanish footballer Antonio Puerto died aged 22 just 35 minutes into a match after suffering a heart attack. 

Defender Clive Clarke collapsed while playing for Leicester City and was saved thanks to a defibrillator. 

Other victims include footballer David Longhurst of York City who died aged 25, Marc-Vivien Foe, of Cameroon, who died aged 28, Benfica's Miklos Feher, 24, Anton Reid, 16, training for Walsall and Daniel Yorath, 15, after just signing for Leeds.