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 A
Worcester grandmother who set out to raise £10,000 to buy a special machine to
test young people in the city for heart defects has finally realised her dream.
Joy
Powell founded the Worcester
branch of CRY (Cardiac Risk in the Young)
after her friend Sherilvn Rampton’s 20-
year old son Craig died suddenly while
playing football
in December 1997.
She
vowed to raise enough money to buy
an electrocardiogram (ECG) machine so
other youngsters
in the city could be tested to see if they were at risk
Craig
died of a Condition which is classed under Sudden Death Syndrome and which Joy
believes
could have been
detected by an ECG scan.
Now
she has handed over the
machine to the Berwyn
House Surgery in Shrubbery Avenue, after two years of fund-raising her
aim is to
encourage as many
youngsters as
possible to take
advantage of it.
She
told the Standard she was absolutely delighted to be able to present the machine
to Dr Michael Sorenson, who is the GP at the Shrubbery Avenue surgery and Chairman
of Worcester City Football Club, at a special
ceremony on
Friday.
Now
Joy hopes that Dr Sorenson will help her to encourage young
people to have an
ECG test through his role at the football club.
“It's
a simple process which in the long run could save someone’s life - if Craig had
had an ECG then I believe he might still have been alive today,” Joy told the
Standard.
"By
setting up screening sessions for not only those who play sport but also people
aged about 18 to 25, then hopefully we can take the measures needed to
prevent a tragedy
such as Craig’s.”
Craig’s
mum Sherilyn Rampton, who was also at the handover ceremony, gave special thanks
to Joy for her efforts.
The
machine will be available for use by
trained staff at
the surgery and will then be taken out by CRY into the community at weekends to
carry out screenings.
Joy
added she was appealing for sports clubs to call her to arrange screenings for
members.,
With permission The Worcester Standard
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