February 22, 2006 is a day that will live with the Gallagher family, Strabane, forever.

It was the day that their youngest daughter Lauren passed away from a then undiagnosed heart condition, aged must 13. 

The tragedy plunged parents Blanche and John back into an abyss they had endured 23 years earlier when son Jonathan (9) collapsed and died in a similarly unexplained manner. 

Following Lauren's death, it emerged that she had suffered from heart abnormalities.  To prevent the same happening to other youngsters, the family has united with charity Cardiac Risk in the Young (CRY) and recently they helped launch a postcard campaign encouraging people to write to their local MLA calling on them to support the CRY screening programme. 

In a frank and at times emotional interview, Lauren and Jonathan's mother Blanche Gallagher this week told the Strabane Chronicle what the CRY campaign means to her and her family. 

"We were in Philadelphia on holiday with relatives and it was Lauren's seventh birthday.  We had a party and she was really enjoying herself,  Then, just as I watched her skipping, she collapsed.  It was the first time it had happened, and we didn't know what was wrong.  But by the time we had carried her out to the garden, she had come round again.  We took her to the Philadelphia Children's Hospital where she was checked out and everything seemed fine," Blanche explained. 

Apparent fainting spells followed by a period of perfect health would become a recurring theme in Lauren's short life and despite constant testing, medical experts could not find any explanation.  Doctors originally put the seizures down to epilepsy. 

Then in January 2006, Lauren passed out while sitting in a chair.  This time her mother's instincts told her that it was more serious than before. 

"She was sitting in a chair and she just passed out.  To me it didn't look good and I got this feeling, a numbness and fear, so we called the paramedics.  Again she recovered, and this time I wrote to Dr Andrew Sands, a consultant from the Royal Victoria Hospital who had been treating her.  A few weeks later he rang and said he was referring Lauren to a colleague of his, a heart specialist in Birmingham.  Then on February 22 at 6.30pm, we had just finished our dinner and Lauren went in to sit down.  All of a sudden she said: "Mummy, I think I'm going to faint."  An ambulance came, followed by a cardiac ambulance, the paramedics did what they could but were unable to save Lauren," Blanche explained. 

It has since been confirmed that Lauren did have a genetic cardiac abnormality known to experts as a Catecholaminergic Polymorphic Ventricular Tachycardia (CPVT).  A similar disorder was responsible for the death of Tyrone Captain Cormac McAnallen. 

Following the death of their second child, the Gallagher family have helped raise thousands of pounds for CRY, a charity founded in 1995 to raise awareness of conditions such as CPVT and Sudden Cardiac Death.  Late last year, CRY launched their Postcard Campaign urging the government to offer their support.  Blanche believes such testing is vital since not all sudden cardiac deaths are genetic and that pro-active screening is the only way to identify the majority of young people at risk. 

"CRY founder Alison Cox told us that if we could get as many postcards signed as humanly possible, our MLA's would have to realise that there are 12 young people a week passing away because of undiagnosed or genetic cardiac defects," Blanche added.