Jaimie Gault was just four months short of his 16^th birthday when he died while playing around in a park with his friends.  That was 18 years ago.  Had he lived he may now be a dad with grandchildren for his parents Margaret and James of Ballyclare to enjoy in their retirement.  His death devastated them but they now hope to help create awareness of this heartbreaking problem which also claimed the life of the young Ulster Gaelic star Cormac McAnallen.

Jaimie was one of a growing number of young people who die suddenly from undetected heart conditions.  And his face is on a new postcard along with seven others who have died in similar situations.

A major drive is now on to highlight this devastating loss by CRY (Cardiac Risk in the Young) a nationwide charity which celebrates its 10^th birthday this year and a branch of which was formed in Northern Ireland earlier this spring.  The charity helps, supports and counsels families where there has been a sudden cardiac death of an apparently fit and healthy young person (Sudden Death Syndrome).

Thousands of the postcards will be distributed by CRY supporters to people across the province and Margaret and James will be manning a special stall at a rally in their home village of Ballyeaston this Saturday June 11 run by the well known Ballyeaston Vintage Tractor Club.  Margaret and James’s stall will not only have the postcards but soft toys and other items associated with the charity for sale.

The idea of the postcards is to ask people to send them to their local MP to enlist Parliamentary help for among other things a national ECG testing programme which is not available in the UK but which is done in Italy for newborns.  Parents believe such a programme would potentially pick up these conditions before a fatality.

Jaimie, like all the others who have died was apparently healthy says his mum (left, with Jaimie's father).  She adds, "His death came out of the blue.  He hadn’t been felling well the year before but we had no idea what it was.  On reflection the symptoms were there but we knew nothing about this condition.  Young people often don’t feel well.  There seemed nothing particularly unusual about him."

The eight young people on the NI postcard had no apparent symptoms or history of bad health.  But clearly their deaths may have been prevented if cardiac screening was more accessible.

Alison Cox, founder and chief executive of CRY believes that showing just some of the faces behind the tragic stories will help people to understand the heartbreak caused by this cruel killer and highlight the fact that it could happen to anyone without warning.

Another face on the postcard is that of 14 year old Ciara Agnew from Derriaghy who died on February 8, 2002, while on a bus on her way home from school.  A pupil of St Dominic’s, she had been laughing and joking with her friends before she died.  The previous night she had mentioned she was tired but it wasn’t enough to alert her family to any danger.

Cormac McAnallen died last year in his sleep.  A fit and healthy young GAA player his loss shocked the Province. 

Ballinderry schoolboy Nicholas Collins was also just 16 when he suffered from a fatal viral infection and died in 1998.  The keen, fit basketball player spent seven weeks at the coronary care unit at the City Hospital before dying a month before Christmas.

Other stories are equally tragic and they have wakened us up to the fact that knowledge of the causes of heart diseases among young people is relatively scant.

When such a death happens in a family the rest of the children can be tested for the potentially fatal condition.  It can run in families.

Margaret Gault says for most families though it has come out of the blue. The Gaults have two other children Derek who was younger than his brother and Angela the mother of four month old twins.

Margaret: "Losing a child is devastating and I don’t think you ever get over it.  In fact it never gets easier.  Jaimie never had the chance to grow up and we missed all that.  He would be 33 now and who knows he may have been married with children of his own.  We’ll just never know."

No parent expects their child to die before them.  After nearly two decades the Gaults now feel ready to highlight the problem and create awareness which will save lives.

The Rally on Saturday is at the Sixmile Water Park in Ballyclare.