Mark Young was an apparently fit young man with his whole life ahead of him.  Married to Emma, with a two-year-old daughter Ella and another baby on the way, he was an avid Liverpool fan who liked nothing better than a game of football on a Sunday evening.  One cold, damp night in May 2007, Mark waved to his wife and child and said he'd see them later.  But he never made it back to their Swansea home.  Two hours later, aged just 34, he collapsed on the football pitch in front of his best friends and died almost instantly of an undiagnosed heart condition. 

Here his family tell Rachel Mainwaring about the huge gap his death has left in their lives and how a simple test could have detected the problem that killed him.   

Wife Emma's story: 

Emma, 27 and Mark married in the picturesque Llangyfelach Church, Swansea on August 5, 206.  Just nine months lager, heavily-pregnant Emma buried her husband in the same church. 

She says: "Mark and I both worked together at HSBC in Swansea and I'd always like him.  He was a bit of a player, a bit cocky, but also a really nice, respectable, funny man.  "Our first date was Sunday lunch at the Towers Hotel in Swansea Bay, where we eventually had our wedding reception.  Within three months I discovered I was pregnant and we moved in together. 

"Ella was born on December 2, 2004 and Mark was a fantastic dad.  He'd always been a bit lazy around the house and nothing could ever come in the way of his beloved Liverpool FC but he was very hands-on with Ella. 

"They were really close and I know he was very proud when she was flower-girl at our summer wedding.  But even that had a Liverpool FC to it!  We had You'll Never Walk Alone played at the church and every table for the 120 guests was named after a famous Liverpool player.  That's how much he loved them. 

"When we got back from our honeymoon in Halkidiki, I discovered I was pregnant with our second child.  We weren't going to find out the sex of the baby, but now, looking back, I'm glad we did. 

"Mark died a month to the day before Mia was born and I'm so glad he knew we were having another little girl and had a hand in preparing for her arrival, even though he never lived to meet her. 

"I remember the day he died very clearly.  His mum and stepdad had been up to stay with us.  It was a bank holiday weekend and we had a lovely barbecue on the Saturday and on the Sunday I wanted to get Mia's room ready.  Mark built the cot and finished off the nursery, helped me get Ella ready for bed then got ready to go to his five-a-side game. 

"I remember saying to him, 'Why do you want to go out on a night like this?" because it was wet and cold and he'd been feeling off colour for a couple of weeks but nothing would come in the way of Mark's football. 

"Ella took a long time to settle that night and I was in the bath when the phone rang.  It was Donna, one of Mark's friend's wives, who said that Mark had collapsed and I needed to get to hospital urgently. 

"I asked how bad he was and she said they couldn't find a pulse.  I rang my mum, screaming, dropped Ella off with her and dad drove me to hospital.  When they took Mark out of the ambulance someone was sitting astride him pumping his chest and I knew then he was very ill. 

"They said he wasn't responding to the treatment because he was so cold and they needed to warm him up, but after 45 minutes, the longest of my life, they pronounced him dead. 

"I was holding his hand and I felt like I was watching someone else.  This couldn't be happening to me.  My lovely Mark was dead.  I was numb, I couldn't cry, I couldn't do anything. 

"The doctors said his aorta had snapped and he would have died instantly.  I ask myself if he wouldn't have died if he hadn't gone to football that night, or if he'd had a check-up, but that's not going to bring him back. 

"A month later, I gave birth to Mia and she looks exactly like Mark.  He would have been so proud and now it's up to me to make sure his memory lives through the girls. 

"Ella is always asking me questions about daddy and I try to answer them as honestly as I can.  We have photos of him everywhere and visit the grave and I've also made a time capsule for each of them with things like daddy's watch, his Liverpool shirts, favourite computer games, that sort of thing. 

"Much as I miss him, I can't stay sad forever and he wouldn't want the girls to see me like that.  I just take each day as it comes and live for every moment.  Life is too short." 

Dad Steve's story:

Steve has been fundraising and working closely with charity Cry (Cardiac Risk in the Young) since Mark's untimely death.  He has helped fund the new cardiac screening programme at the University of Glamorgan, which offers an ECG to help find any underlying heart conditions in young men. 

He says: "If one person can be saved due to being screened then it will make it worthwhile.  Mark died due to a dissection to the aorta and none of us had any idea this was going to happen. 

"His brother and sister Carl and Kerry have been tested since Mark's death and everything is OK, but I would encourage any young, active sportsman to be tested.  It's a silent killer, and one that can be prevented with proper screening. 

"Mark played football from the age of five.  He was a fit and healthy gentleman.  It's just come totally out of the blue.  It shocked us, devastated us. 

"Now I'm concentrating on raising money and awareness for Mark's Memorial Fund and CRY. 

"I'm chairman of Pontnewydd Working Men's Club and we've held lots of charity events there in memory of my boy and I'm so grateful to all those who helped.  We raised £4,500 thanks to donations for an auction from WRU and Swansea football club and we held a charity golf day, raising £6,500, organised by Mark's best mate Lee Parkin. 

"The guest speaker there was former Liverpool player Alan Kennedy.  Mark's former employers HSBC matched pound for pound, totalling £22,000, which we donated to CRY for the Welsh screening clinic. 

"As a father who has lost a son, I would urge young people between the ages of 14 and 35 to get screened, particularly if they engage in sport.  I wouldn't want anyone to go through what my family has gone through.  It's devastating."