A couple who lost their son through a hidden heart condition have backed a Teesside MP's moves to get more youngsters hearts screened.

Stockton South's Labour MP Dari Taylor has won a place in the Commons ballot for Private Members Bills. She intends to bring in a private Bill to deal with the little recognised problem of cardiac arrest in the young.

Mrs Taylor is treasurer of the all-party group on cardiac risk in the young and believes she has a real chance of putting on the statute book of laws a measure that will make a difference.

Every week an average of eight people aged under 25 die of cardiac arrest - usually without any warning.

A potential clue, she says, is that sometimes such young people begin to suffer fainting fits which, at present, are seldom taken seriously.

Under the law Mrs Taylor wants to bring in, any young person taken to and A & E unit after fainting, even when they look healthy and fit, will automatically have an ECG and the results examined by a cardiologist.

Mrs Taylor and heart specialists believe this routine procedure will help identify many of those who may otherwise go on to have an unexpected cardiac arrest.

Mrs Taylor points out that such procedures are already automatic for people over 40 and she believes that including the younger age groups will help avoid many unnecessary deaths.

Her campaign was backed by Maralyn and Kenny Bowen of Redcar.  Their son Ian died in 1996, aged just 19, from Wolff-Parkinson-White Syndrome, a rare heart defect which prior screening may have picked up.

Since his death, the Bowens have campaigned on behalf of Cardiac Risk in the Young and have organised three heart screening sessions in Redcar.

Maralyn said:"I think it's a brilliant idea - it could help detect quite a few conditions under the "sudden death" umbrella

"People don't take this seriously enough.  If an older person has a problem they are treated more seriously but younger people are assumed to be fit."

Mrs Taylor was drawn fifth in the ballot which means she stands a very high chance of seeing her Bill become law some time next year.

She said she first became aware of the problem when the apparently fit and healthy son of a friend was found dead in his bed one morning after suffering a cardiac arrest.