Grieving parents walk for charity (From Echo)

Grieving parents walk for charity

10:30am Friday 25th July 2008 in

• Skip social links
• Print
• Email
• Comments(1)

A COUPLE who lost their son from a heart attack when he was just 28 have taken part in an emotional event.

Peter and Gillian Patterson raised almost £800 by taking part in Saturday’s walk over eight Thames bridges, from Hampton Court to Tower Bridge – one for each of the eight people under 35 who die each week of a heart problem in the UK.

The walk was to support national charity, Cardiac Risk in the Young.

The Pattersons of Highfield Road, Billericay, became involved with the charity when they lost their son, James from an undiagnosed cardiac illness – Brugada Syndrome – in 2005.

Tragically James, who left a wife Melanie and daughter, Charlotte Marie, then just a year old, died in his sleep after training for a rugby match earlier in the day.

It was later discovered that James’s rare abnormality of the heart would have been picked up by a scan, if the facility had been available.

Mr Patterson, 68, explained: “The charity support the widows and the parents of youngsters who have died.

“The other aim is to get tests done in schools, so they can prevent these deaths “It can be detected if you have an electrocardiogram done early and, more often than not, something can then be done to cure the problem.”

The charity was launched more than ten years ago to raise awareness of the conditions that can lead to sudden and unexplained cardiac death in young people all of whom were apparently fit and healthy.

The charity is now heavily involved in lobbying for greater access to screening for young people – especially those who regularly take part in sporting activities and now provides medical equipment and a subsidised screening programme around the UK.