Postcard appeal to MP to back screening for youngsters

This is the postcard that Islanders are being urged to send to their MP urging him to support a new campaign. 

The thought-provoking card features the photograph of tragic Sheppey girl Charlotte Wright, who died aged just eight years old. 

Charlotte is pictured alongside seven other young people from the South East who also lost their lives to previously undetected heart conditions. 

The hard-hitting campaign by Cardiac Risk in the Young aims to get the government to provide heart screening for young people. 

Charlotte died of sudden heart failure in May 2002 as she scaled a 20ft high tree on a school adventure holiday in Hindhead, Surrey. 

At an inquest the coroner heard that Charlotte, a pupil at Halfway Houses Primary School, was a fit and healthy young girl who had no history of problems. 

Charlotte’s mum, Karen Williams, has been given 500 of the postcards to distribute to people in the hope they will send them on to Sittingbourne and Sheppey MP Derek Wyatt, urging him to back the campaign. 

Karen has contacted family and friends and is calling on homes in Sheerness and Minster and will also pay for the postage stamps. 

Alison Cox, founder and chief executive of CRY 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.”