As a primary school pupil, Amy Mead (left) was devastated by her best friend’s death while on an adventure holiday.
Amy, from Minster, is now a pupil at Highstead Grammar School in Sittingbourne, and has been awarded a certificate from the charity CRY, Cardiac Risk in the Young, for raising more than £500.
Amy was a pupil at Halfway Houses primary school when the trip to an adventure camp in Hindhead, Surrey, ended in the tragic death of her friend Charlotte Wright.
Since then Charlotte’s parents, Chris Wright and Karen Williams, have been raising the profile of the charity CRY, particularly in Sheppey where they live.
In October Amy took part in the annual Highstead Grammar School’s Year 8 bazaar and teacher Gail Penny explained:
“The entire Year 8 pupils were involved in a frenzy of fund-raising ideas which culminated in a morning bazaar where they sell their wares for charity.
“This year the girls raised well over £1,000 between them, with Amy and her friends raising a total of £36.50 for CRY on the day.
CRY had sent Amy 500 badges which were not all sold at the bazaar, so she decided to continue and do her own fund-raising.
Now she has made more than £500 from selling badges and with the help of donations from friends and family, and from the Round Table.
When asked what inspired her to continue her fund-raising, Amy said: “I wanted to help stop children dying and to help people not go through what I went through.”
FACTFILE
Every week eight apparently fit and healthy young people in the UK die from undiagnosed heart conditions.
The CRY charity was founded in 1995 to raise awareness of Sudden Death Syndrome (SADS) in the young. They also offer support to those who have suffered a loss through a network of affected families and counselling.
CRY promotes heart screening, ECG testing programmes and contributes to medical research. It also donates the relevant medical equipment to doctors’ surgeries and hospitals, plus funding the sports cardiology at the Olympic medical centre.
