In July 2004, my 17 year old brother Adam collapsed and died from an undiagnosed heart condition. Every week, up to 12 young people (under the age of 35) die suddenly, with 80% of those young people never showing any symptoms of having a heart condition. This was brought into focus a couple of years ago after the collapse of Bolton Wanderers footballer Fabrice Muamba. – thankfully, he was saved but this is very rare.

Since then, my family have undergone testing and both my mother and I have been diagnosed with the hereditary heart condition, Brugada Syndrome. I have since had surgery and been fitted with an Implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) which will prevent me from suffering a fatal cardiac arrest.

Since losing Adam, we have been raising money for the charity Cardiac Risk in the Young (CRY) to raise awareness of these sudden deaths and to pay for heart screening of people aged 14-35. CRY have been inundated with requests for heart screening after Fabrice’s collapse – each screening costs £35 with no government funding available for these tests. I have finally been signed off, as well enough to run and therefore, to raise more funds and awareness for this amazing charity, myself and two friends will be running the London Marathon next year! For more information, visit - www.C-R-Y.org.uk http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/team/TeamAdam Based on information supplied by Sian Donnelly.