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A new campaign to
publicise undetected heart conditions in young people is being backed on
Teesside.
The Cardiac Risk in the
Young (CRY) charity invited MPs from all parties to view a poster-sized
version of a new postcard featuring eight young people who died from
undetected heart conditions.
A new card will be
launched every month, portraying victims from 12 different regions across
the UK. And when it’s the North-east’s turn, several Teesside
families who lost young loved ones through heart defects will be among
those appearing.
Maralyn and Kenny Bowen
of Redcar, whose son Ian died in 1996, Margo Wright from Thorntree, who
believes her daughter Mandi Blake, 32, died of Sudden Adult Death Syndrome
in November 2001, and Julie Hatton, whose son Leon Manners died in 1999,
aged just four, have all backed CRY screening sessions and support the new
campaign.
Maralyn Bowen said:
“They asked us if we’d be on the North-east postcard and everyone is
very keen. The more we can
raise awareness, the better.”
Middlesbrough South and
East Cleveland MP Ashok Kumar told the postcard launch: “I applaud the
charity for tackling the issue of sudden death in the young in such a
brave and emotive way.”
CRY says many of the
hundreds of sudden deaths which occur every year in the UK could be
prevented if simple cardiac screening was made more accessible.
Chief Executive of CRY,
Alison Cox, said: “By showing just some of the faces behind the stories
we read and hear about 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.
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