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Courageous parents battling to ensure their
children’s lives have not been lost in vain are a step closer to
bringing a heart screening unit to North Wales.
Geoff and Maureen Rutherford, who lost
their son Jonathan to sudden death syndrome in January and Doreen Harley,
whose daughter died from the same condition in 1998, have joined forces to
help detect it in other youngsters before it’s too late.
As a Cardiac Risk in the Young (CRY)
fundraiser, Doreen feared raising £6,666 for the North Wales screening
fund, launched by Alyn and Deeside MP Mark Tami, would be very difficult.
But Geoff and Maureen Rutherford, who run
the Miners Arms in Maes Hafn, stepped in and gave the Chronicle
backed appeal a massive boost, to say thanks for the support they received
from CRY since their own tragic loss.
The sixth annual jazz festival at their
village pub organised in conjunction with the Mold and Buckley Lions
raised more than £4000 for CRY and Guide Dogs for the Deaf.
Geoff, who joined the fundraising
organisation in 1995, said the Lions have pledged their commitment to
funding a unit to detect the condition, which kills between four and eight
apparently fit and healthy young people in UK every year.
‘The festival was a tremendous success’
said Geoff. ‘The biggest
and best to date. And people
gave very generously as there was no admission fee.’
The event dubbed Jazz
on a Summer’s Afternoon, was sponsored by local businesses and drew
in crowds of music lovers.
Wirral-based rhythm and blues band Red Moon
delighted audiences with sounds of the deep south before the Original
Panama Jazzmen took over in the late afternoon.
The marquee, loaned at a discounted rate
from Buckley-based Tents and Events where Jonathan worked, then came alive
with the sounds of local band Nebula during the evening.
‘We started holding these events in 1997
and have raised more than £10,000 for different charities in total,’
Geoff added.
Doreen, who lost her 27-year-old daughter
Lisa to Long QT Syndrome, one of the 11 main causes of Sudden Cardiac
Death in the Young, was on hand at the event raising awareness.
‘I was overwhelmed by people’s
generosity,’ she said. ‘The
Lions went around with a collection bucket and there were £10 and £5
notes being thrown in. The
bands were excellent and the event raised a lot of money.’
‘If the mobile screening unit can save
just one life, then it’s all been worth it.’
Geoff is now hoping to arrange another
event at Clwyd Theatre Cymru in memory of his son, who died at the age of
31.
‘I’m organising a concert in aid of CRY
on the anniversary of Jonathan’s death – January 19,’ he said.
‘I’ve been in touch with the theatre and we plan to have all
the music he would have liked.'
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