Cardiac screening event held in Derbyshire teenager's memory

Madeline Siddall died six days after her Year 11 prom

A heart screening event for young people is being held in memory of a 15-year-old girl.

Madeline Siddall, of Eckington, in Derbyshire, died from sudden cardiac arrest in 2011 after she collapsed at her boyfriend's house.

The fully-booked event in Warsop, Nottinghamshire, will give 100 people a electrocardiogram (ECG) on Saturday.

Her mother Anne, who raised funds for the event, said she hoped it would stop others enduring what her family did.

Mrs Siddall said Madeline had just finished her GCSEs when she died - about three weeks before her 16th birthday.

"She was quirky, funny, loved cucumber, loved silly socks - she was just a good kid," she said.

Madeline Siddall, photographed here with her brother Archie, was thinking about going into teaching, her mum said

She said she rushed to Madeline's boyfriend's house after receiving a phone call to say her daughter had collapsed but when she saw her she "knew she was gone".

Paramedics tried to save Madeline and she was taken to Chesterfield Hospital where she was pronounced dead.

Mrs Siddall, a junior school teacher who works at Birklands Primary School where the screening is being held, said a post mortem examination found the cause of death was sudden cardiac arrest.

"She had shown no outward signs. It was quite out-of-the-blue and bewildering," she said.

"It was a very dark time."

The two previous screening events took place in Eckington

Mrs Siddally, 54, said about three or four years after Madeline's death she decided she wanted to create a legacy for her and started fundraising for the charity Cardiac Risk in the Young (CRY).

This has been used to finance Saturday's screening event - costing £6,000 - as well as two previous ones.

CRY said every week in the UK about 12 people aged under 35 die suddenly from a previously undiagnosed heart condition.

The previous screenings found two or three young people who needed further investigation, said Mrs Siddall.

"It is a life sentence losing a child. It is massively important that children are screened," she said.

"It might prevent someone else going through what we went through."