Campaign to raise awareness

The family of a teenager who died suddenly on holiday are joining a campaign to raise awareness of cardiac disease in the young. 

Therese Field was 16 when she died in 1997.  The teenager, who loved dancing, was in Year 11 at Clarendon House School in Ramsgate and was preparing for her GCSEs when she died.  The school named their new performing arts block after Therese. 

Her sister Tara Gore, who was 19 at the time, has now become a regional representative of the charity CRY (Cardiac Risk in the Young).  The charity has printed postcards featuring the faces of other young people who have also died in similar circumstances. 

Eight people under the age of 35 die each week in the UK in unexplained circumstances. 

The charity wants to lobby MPs to get all children checked for possible heart conditions and a postcard has been sent to every MP.  North Thanet member Roger Gale has already backed the charity. 

Mrs Gore said: “In most cases, including Therese’s, doctors assume there is some kind of heart problem, although they can never tell for sure why the person has died. 

“But lots of the victims are very fit, young people, athletes and dancers, so there is research being carried out to see if there is a link. 

“We want every child to be given a heart check, maybe at secondary school, when they are getting their BCG injection. 

“That way a large number of children can be checked quickly, without much extra cost to the health service.” 

Therese lived with her parents Pauline and Ray in Cliftonville. 

Her brother Tom, now 25, and sisters Tara, Tiffany, now 22, and Tasmin, now 18, have yearly checks to ensure they do not have heart problems. 

Mrs Gore runs her own dancing school, Stargazers in Cliftonville, and visits local schools to run dance classes. 

She has handed out the postcards to children and parents and wants as many people as possible to see them. 

“I am encouraging PE teachers to make their students aware of the problem.”