A grieving mother who lost her son to an undetected heart condition nearly eight years ago is campaigning for mandatory medical screening. 

Diane Tolley’s 15-year-old son Robert Poysor, a healthy teenager who enjoyed playing sports, collapsed and died while cycling with friends in Bewdley in May 1996. 

His distraught mother, of New Road, Bewdley, later found out her son’s tragic death was caused by an undetected heart condition called Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy or Sudden Death Syndrome – which, it is believed, claims the lives of four to eight people a week. 

Now a member of the charity Cardiac Risk in the Young, she is appealing for people to write to their MP’s in support of a Private Members Bill being presented to Parliament by Stockton South MP Dari Taylor in March. 

Fifty-six-year-old Diane says the bill – which aims to improve the availability of screening to those recognised as being at “high risk” of Sudden Death Syndrome – is just the first step towards a universal screening process. 

The “high risk” category includes youngsters with a family history of the heart defect and those showing symptoms of it. 

“I wouldn’t wish what we’ve been through on any family because it’s the most devastating trauma,” she said. 

“Robert was a normal fit youngster who went out cycling and didn’t come home. 

“He got off his bike, said he felt dizzy and literally collapsed and died.  We were devastated and really at a loss to understand what had happened.”

Diane joined CRY after being contacted by a Birmingham family who lost their 16-year-old son to the same condition and said she was horrified to find out how many lives it had claimed. 

She added Robert had shown no symptoms before he died but she had heard many stories of children being taken to the doctor after fainting, returning home and then dying two or three weeks later.