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Louise was born on 19th October 1986, a
Sunday child, my only child. She was the light of my life, the very best part
of me. She was a happy, easy baby with a sunny personality who grew into a
lovely young woman with a smile to light up a room. Louise had a great sense of
fun, was tolerant of others, had great style and was the jewel in our family.
She once told me that although she had many friends I was her best friend and we
were more like sisters than mother and daughter. She put her heart into
everything she did from brownies to ballet, from piano lessons to gymnastics.
When she transferred to High School, she really
began to flourish. On the school Committee, Sports Captain and Deputy Head
Girl, she gave her all and was repaid with excellent GCSE grades. Her English
teacher was so impressed with her work that she asked Louise if she would donate
her books to the school so she could show her other students how to write. She
had a full and active life and I thank God that she was able to have experienced
all she did because her life was so tragically cut short. As the Head teacher
of her school said to me ‘Louise flew twice as high for half as long’.
Louise died on Tuesday 1st June 2004.
She had a part time job in the evenings at a local hotel and had gone to bed for
a rest before starting work at 6pm. Before she went to lie down, Louise came
into my bedroom and we lay on the bed in each other’s arms and had one of our
girlie chats and I remember how we laughed and hugged each other. She got up to
go to her room and when she reached the door she turned round and said, “I love
you, Mum.”
At 5.15 I went in to wake her and I took one look at
her and I just knew that she was dead. Her eyes were not quite closed and her
lips were blue. I remember thinking she must have been cold to have such blue
lips. I tried to wake her but she didn’t respond. I screamed for Ken, my
husband, and he came rushing into the room. As I rang for an ambulance, Ken
began compressions. Then she was rushed to hospital where the doctors continued
to work on her but she was pronounced dead at 7.08pm. Spookily this was the
same time she was born.
The funeral was held on a sunny day in a tiny
village church nestling on the edge of the Pennines. Everyone wore pink and six
of the boys in her group bought matching pink shirts and ties and wore pink
roses in their buttonholes as they carried her into church. All the flowers
were pink except for mine, which were yellow, because she was my golden girl,
the sunshine of my life. At the hotel where she had worked we drank champagne
and celebrated a life that, although short, was rich and full and has given us
so many wonderful memories.
We then had to wait five months for the inquest
which gave us a verdict of ‘Natural Causes’, but we have since found out that
Louise died of Long QT Variant 3. I was given the address of CRY from a friend
and after receiving their literature I arranged to go to the Heart Hospital in
London as part of CRY’s research into inherited arrhythmia. I have found out I
am a carrier of Long QT but I have it only slightly, whereas Louise's was very
severe. Yet it is something I had never heard of and certainly never
suspected.
The time has gone by in a blur. There are so many
times when I forget that she’s dead and after something particularly good or bad
has happened, I think ‘I must tell Lou about that’ or ‘I wonder what Lou will
think of this.” Even after almost three years, I can’t really accept that she’s
gone. I talk to her every day, have worn her wishbone ring since the day she
died and carry a lock of her hair with me always to keep a part of her close to
me. We have tried to keep her name alive by having an award presented at her
school. The Louise Worth Memorial Shield for Citizenship has been presented
three times now and we also present the Louise Worth Cup for Community Action at
the college she attended.
I have recently been privileged
to be asked by CRY to be a County Representative. I hope that I can help to
make as many people as possible aware of the ‘silent killer’ that has claimed so
many young lives. I want to do my best to prevent other families from having to
live through the nightmare that follows the loss of their children and siblings
and I want to raise enough funds to provide equipment to test other young people
and allow them to live the lives they were meant to have.
If you would like to contact one of our
Representatives or a Bereavement Supporter please call the CRY office at 01737 363222 or e-mail cry@c-r-y.org.uk
and we will put you in touch with someone who may be able to help
you.
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Sue
Jarvis