Sisters of tragic teen back heart campaign

When lively teen and Clarendon House pupil Therese Field suddenly collapsed and died while on holiday with friends it devastated her loving family.  Therese, a fit, healthy girl, was just 16 when her life was claimed during the 1997 visit to Minehead Butlins leaving no real answers as to why. 

Her death was blamed on Sudden Death Syndrome (SDS), a widely unknown condition doctors believe is often caused by undetected heart problems, similar to an adult version of cot death. 

Therese’s family has joined a Cardiac Risk in the Young (CRY) campaign to get the Government behind their fight to save lives.  Sister Tara Gore said: “We were devastated by Therese’s death. 

“We want to try to stop this from happening to other families.” 

Therese’s photo has been printed on a postcard which will be distributed throughout Thanet.  CRY hopes residents will back their cause and send the postcards to MPs, asking them to make cardiac screening in the UK more accessible. 

If more people get their hearts checked, dangerous health problems can be detected and treated, said a CRY spokesman. 

Therese’s case was typical of SDS, explains Tara. 

“Doctors tried to do what they could,” she said.  “They think she died straight away.  It was awful because she didn’t seem ill or anything.” 

On the contrary, Therese was busy and athletic, tragically like many SDS victims.  The active teen loved to dance and played sports at school.   She was also “very fun, very outgoing, very popular,” Tara recalled. 

“These young people are very fit and healthy usually.  With a lot of them, doctors think they might still be alive if they had done a test.” 

Research has indicated physical activity can suddenly cause any existing defects to stop the victim’s heart from beating. 

Therese’s family has been fighting against SDS since her death eight years ago with fund-raising and education. 

The facts about SDS

Sudden Death Syndrome (SDS) is an umbrella term used for the many different causes of cardiac arrest in young people. 

Accurate statistics are not available, but experts estimate up to eight young people die suddenly each week in the UK of cardiac abnormalities – sudden death syndrome or sudden cardiac death. 

The majority of young sudden cardiac deaths are due to inherited forms of heart muscle disorder and irregular heart beat.  Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy is the most common of these conditions. 

It is estimated about 80 per cent of all non-traumatic sudden deaths in young competitive athletes are due to inherited/congenital structural of functional cardiovascular abnormalities. 

In the UK unexplained “sudden death”, where there is no cause identified, is frequently classified as due to natural causes.  Experts believe the majority of these deaths are due to sudden death syndrome or sudden cardiac death.