PARENTS of a young Hampshire woman who died from a rare heart condition have taken their campaign for cardiac screening to parliament once more.
Eastleigh MP Mims Davies met with constituents Graham and Anne Hunter, from Botley, whose daughter Claire Reed died aged 22 from Sudden Adult Death Syndrome (SADS) while at a hen party in Taunton in 2013.
They were attending a parliamentary reception for bereaved families, researchers, charity patrons and MPs from all parties in support of a National Strategy for the Prevention of Young Sudden Cardiac Death (YSCD), to put cardiac screening in the spotlight and help save young lives.
Experts from the charity CRY (Cardiac Risk in the Young) told guests that the first stage of a national strategy should be to acknowledge the number of these tragic deaths.
Dr Steven Cox, CEO of CRY said: “Twelve young people dying every week is not a 'tiny' issue. This is one of the most common causes of death in young people.
"Also, it is completely wrong and unacceptable to compare cardiac arrests in seemingly fit and healthy young people to heart attacks in the elderly.”
In 80 per cent of young sudden cardiac death cases, there will have been no signs or symptoms, which is why CRY believes proactive screening is so vitally important, now testing over 23,000 young people every year.
Evidence shows that there is a significant under-reporting the number of young sudden cardiac deaths (age 35 and under).
CRY was founded in May 1995 and has tested more than 100,000 young people.
Ms Davies said: “I am pledging to support a National Strategy for the Prevention of Young Sudden Cardiac Death to save the lives of the 12 apparently fit and healthy young people who die every week in the UK of undiagnosed cardiac conditions."
She added: “I was introduced to this campaign by my constituents, Graham and Anne Hunter, who lost their lovely daughter Claire, aged just 22.
"They have campaigned tirelessly for CRY and I was proud to be able to support them at the reception in Parliament.”
Graham and Anne Hunter’s campaigning work since Claire’s death was instrumental in persuading the then chancellor George Osborne to allocate funding to install more defibrillators in public places.
The couple met with Mr Osborne who was moved by their story and later wrote to them in person.
He wrote: “I want you to know that it is thanks to your campaign that this has happened and it is thanks to you that more lives will be saved.”
Claire, an accountant who ran her own beauty therapy business was fit and healthy and had had married just five months before her tragic death.
She was with friends a health spa when complained off feeling sick.
hen friends took her outside for some fresh air she collapsed and died later in hospital despite efforts to resuscitate her.
For more details of Cardiac Risk in the Young visit c-r-y.org.uk.
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