An Eden charity group has tackled a 20-mile fundraising walk in a bid to screen 200 young hearts and potentially save lives.
CRY for Eden was set up as a branch of Cardiac Risk in the Young – a UK Charity which aims to prevent sudden cardiac deaths in young people through awareness, screening, research and support for affected families.
Donna Mills, 44, of Clifton near Penrith, who is behind the ring-fenced charity said she was inspired to start fundraising after seeing young people die suddenly in the news and local area from undetected heart issues.
She said: “Overall we’re trying to raise £12,000 to have a screening day for 200 young adults in our area between the ages of 14 to 35 to check for any undiagnosed genetic heart problems that left untreated could result in sudden cardiac arrest.
“Me and my family are into sport and my husband and my two boys play football and I felt it was quite important to screen people in our area and not just fundraise for the wider UK after seeing people in the news have cardiac arrests on pitches. I also have a family history of heart problems.”
As part of the fundraising goal, Donna has set up a series of events including an afternoon tea that raised £2,700 and a big breakfast that raised £800 with the latest being the 20-mile Ullswater Way hike.
She said: “The weather the week before we went wasn’t great and I actually went up to have a look at the trail and it was very wet and boggy! But on the day the weather was absolutely beautiful and there were 35 of us on the walk in total.
“A few of my family members came along to do some of the walk including my cousin who has cardiomyopathy, my mum who has previously had a heart attack and my aunty who has had a heart bypass.”
Donna’s good friend who is a chef made the group food for the walk and her husband also turned up at various points along the trail to provide support where needed.
She added: “We left at quarter to eight in the morning and the first group was back within seven and a half hours and the last group was within nine and a half hours.”
Overall, the epic-trek raised a whopping total of £4000 – meaning alongside their other fundraising efforts, the charity group only have another £4,500 left to raise to hit their goal.
The heart screening day is set to take place in February next year at Penrith’s Queen Elizabeth Grammar School.
While the screening normally costs £60 to have privately – the fundraising will cover the costs, meaning young people will be able to access the screenings free of charge.
Attendees will be given a medical questionnaire to start with which covers family history, symptoms and medications as well as height and weight.
An ECG is then performed and an on-hand cardiologist will sit to talk through patient results.
From there, if something that requires further investigation if found, the individual is sent for an immediate echocardiogram, so attendees are able to come away with more information on a potential diagnosis faster.
Donna said: “It is a lifesaving process, a lot of the things they screen for are silent killers so people often don’t know they have a problem until it is too late.
“For rugby and football players the extra strain on the hearts can set off an underlying heart problem so the screening process is really important.
“A lot of people don’t even know that the screenings exist and that you can have one. We get our teeth and our eyes checked but the heart doesn’t get funding from the Government.
“But from my point of view it’s all about raising awareness, at the moment it is just me organising things but I have had a few people ask to do sponsored runs and things like that, but I am hoping it eventually becomes a wider community thing where more people get involved.”
You can donate to the fundraiser here: www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/ullswaterway-cryforeden
