Staffordshire mum's fundraising pays for heart screening checks

Angela Butler has raised thousands for the charity CRY

Almost 200 young people have had a heart screen in Staffordshire over the weekend thanks to funding raised by the mother of a teenager who died suddenly.

Angela Butler has campaigned for Cardiac Risk in the Young (CRY) since losing her son Nathan 17 years ago from an undetected heart condition.

She has raised more than £200,000 to facilitate the screenings held on Saturday and Sunday.

Each session costs about £12,000 and two were held in Newcastle-under-Lyme.

Each week in the UK, about 12 people under the age of 35 die suddenly from a previously undiagnosed heart condition with 80% occurring with no prior symptoms, the charity said.

Nathan died 17 years ago, his mother said

Nathan was 16 years old when his mother found him lying on his bedroom floor.

"You never ever get over it - but you learn to live with it," she said.

"But the pain and the devastation is there forever. We had two children and now we've only for one.

"It isn't just today, tomorrow, next week. It's forever and it hits you when you're least expecting it."

Screening sessions were held on Saturday and Sunday

She said each screening costs £60 per person.

"We do the fundraising locally and it goes back into the community, every penny," she added.

Dr Nikhil Chatrath who was at the screening said "A lot of these people who die suddenly are fit and healthy with no symptoms - but we can rule out about 90% of these conditions by the ECG alone."

The charity now tests around 25,000 young people across the UK every year with over 260,000 people checked since the first screening.

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