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A Hampshire woman whose 16-year-old son died from sudden
heart failure took on a national running challenge for women to raise money for
a charity fighting the condition.
Dozens of local women, including Mary Abraham from Southampton,
completed the 5Km Flora Light race in Hyde Park, London, earlier this month.
Cardiac Risk in the Young (CRY) is campaigning for
national heart screening to be made available to all, including the very young.
Mary's son Philip, who attended Western Park Boys School
in Southampton, died six years ago from an undetected heart problem. She Said:
"It happens more often than people think - these conditions cause the
deaths of at least four young people a week and it can affect children as young
as five and six."
Mary and other fundraisers in the area have helped to
raise around £12,500 for the charity over the last five years. They are
planning tobuy an ECG machine - which monitors the heart - for Bitterne Health
Centre.
Mary strongly believes lives could be saved if heart
screening was made available to all because there are usually no symptoms with
the condition. She said: " My son died overnight. At the
moment heart screening is not freely available but it should be because there
can be undetected heart problems.
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