Organisation raising cash to set up a unit to screen for killer condition

May 29 2008

SCOTTISH Heart at Risk Testing was set up by Selkirk woman Wilma Gunn.

Her son, Cameron, died from hypertrophic cardiomyopathy the day before his 20th birthday while playing five-a-side football.

The condition is thought to have led to the death of many young people including Daniel Yorath, 15, whose father Terry, the Leeds United player, managed the Welsh senior football team.

Marc-Vivien Foe, the Manchester City player and Cameroon internationalist, is also thought to have been a victim of the condition.

Mrs Gunn said many European countries had screening programmes for children taking up competitive sports.

Scottish HART are currently raising money for a professionally-manned screening unit to test young athletes and children from families with a history of cardiac problems.

Professor Stewart Hillis, a leading heart specialist at the Western Infirmary, Glasgow, and the Scottish football team’s doctor, is a patron of Scottish HART.

Fraser Miller was put in touch with Scottish HART after writing to Health Minister Nicola Sturgeon about cardiac screening following the death of his daughter.

Fraser would like to thank the many Lanarkshire people who signed the Scottish HART petition presented to the Scottish Parliament this week.