On average every week 12 young people in the UK die from undiagnosed heart conditions. These can involve diseases such as cardiomyopathy, persistent irregularities in heartbeat rhythms or sudden disruptions of heart function. Many of the victims appear to be physically fit with no apparent health problems. Sudden Adult Death Syndrome (SADS) is an umbrella term used for the many different causes of cardiac arrest in young people.

Prior to the high profile case of Fabrice Muamba who collapsed live on air in the middle of a televised FA Cup football match in 2012, the extent of the problem was something that received very little publicity but the impact of it was made brutally clear to me and my family on 31st August 2006 when my older sister Vicky collapsed at my parents' home one evening and despite the best efforts of paramedics and the accident & emergency department at Burnley General Hospital, she never regained consciousness and was pronounced dead in the early hours of 1st September. She was 23 years old. 

A post mortem took place followed by an inquest and it transpired that no cause of death was apparent. The coroner's verdict was 'death by natural causes', but nothing seemed less natural than losing a young, fit and healthy sister in this way. I speak no hyperbole when I say that if anyone had told me that I would be imminently losing a close relative, Vicky would have been the last person I would have named. At the time, she was vibrant, the happiest she had ever been and very much in love. She was robbed of her life before she could leave anything other than memories as her legacy and part of the reason I have chosen to do this is because I find the idea of her being forgotten equally as painful as the fact she is no longer here.

I'm hoping to raise £1000 (minimum) for Cardiac Risk in the Young and £1000 (minimum) for Amnesty International: 

I chose CRY as they are a charity that fund research and screening into the possible causes of Sudden Acute Death Syndrome, a program which our delightful and thoroughly compassionate government decided not to pursue in a report, citing it as “rare” and the risks, “tiny”. However, as part of this report, it is believed that the Committee had failed to acknowledge highly regarded, peer reviewed research, resulting in a gross underestimate of the number of young sudden cardiac deaths. Just a reminder that the actual number, on average, is 624 young adults a year in the UK alone. 

I chose Amnesty International because it was a charity about which Vicky felt very strongly and I considered it was important not only to fund research into the cause of her death but also to donate to charity in which both she and I support and believe. 

Just for clarity's sake
 
THIS IS THE AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL PAGE. 

If you wish to donate to Cardiac Risk in the Young, this is link to the corresponding page: https://www.justgiving.com/Ed-Stockton

On a more self-indulgent note, this is almost as cathartic for me as it is in memory of Vicky in some ways. The full impact of her death didn't hit or take full effect on me until some time later and did so in a very unpleasant way, making me very unhappy for quite a long time and in her, I lost the person whose attitude and approach to life most closely mirrored my own.

However, unpleasant as it was, I feel it sold a few hard truths about the realities of life to me that in hindsight has (hopefully) made me a better and more durable person. I feel I, at the very least, owe her for that. Suffice it to say I still feel a stab of pride when I've argued my mum to the point where she, inhaling sharply in frustration, says 'You're just like your sister!'. She is also one of the main contributing factors to me developing into the obnoxiously militant Liverpool fan I am today but make of that what you will I guess.

Thank you

Ed

P.S After a period of living in Seoul, Jez (Vicky's boyfriend at the time) returned to Australia and is currently running a horticultural business in Perth. We hear from his parents every Christmas and by all accounts he's doing well.