Hundreds of young people to be given potentially life-saving cardiac screenings in Kirkcudbright
Hundreds of young people will be given potentially life-saving cardiac screenings in Kirkcudbright this weekend.
Cardiac Risk for the Young (CRY) will be holding sessions in Kirkcudbright Academy, with everyone taking part receiving an ECG and a one-to-one consultation with a cardiologist.
The screenings have been made possible by the David Hill Memorial Fund, which was set up after David died of an undiagnosed heart condition while playing rugby three years ago.
Since then, the fund has raised more than £80,000, allowing 1,200 free cardiac screenings to be held across Dumfries and Galloway – with 200 taking place in Kirkcudbright across Saturday and Sunday.
David's parents, Rodger Hill and Sharon Duncan, said: 'We hope that by taking this screening to the west of the region, more young people will have the opportunity to have their hearts screened. We want to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has supported us in our fundraising and awareness raising campaigns.
'We, and CRY, believe that every young person from the age of 14 up until the age of 35 should have access to free, expert cardiac screening and that young people and their parents should be given a choice to be screened.
'We will continue our campaign to urge the government to radically re-think its approach to specialist cardiac screening in the UK in order to reduce the incidence of young people dying from the often-preventable conditions that can cause sudden cardiac death in young people.
'Since David's death, just over three years ago, almost 2,000 families have had to experience the pain, anguish and grief that we have had. That is a pain that is preventable with screening.'
Former St Joseph's College pupil David Hill worked for a number of MSPs. On March 19, 2022, he was playing a cross-party rugby match for Holyrood against Dail and Seanad XV in Dublin as part of the Parliamentary Six Nations when he collapsed and died of an undiagnosed heart condition at the age of just 30.
Every week across the UK, around 12 people aged under 25 die suddenly from a previously diagnosed heart condition – 80 per cent of which happen with no prior symptoms.
This weekend's sessions are follow booked and people are asked not to turn up without an appointment.
Chief executive of CRY, Dr Steven Cox, said: 'As ever, on behalf of all of us at CRY, I would like to say a huge thank you to David's family and everyone involved with the David Hill Memorial Fund.
'Their ongoing fundraising and awareness efforts are making such an incredible impact to the level of cardiac screening we're delivering for young people in Scotland.
'This year marks 30 years since CRY was launched – with a vision to reduce young sudden cardiac death through screening and research – and it's only due to the support of families, such as David's, that we've been able to grow our nationwide screening programme to the extent that we've now tested more than 315,000 young hearts.
'One in every 300 of those tested by CRY will be found to have a hidden heart condition which, if left untreated or unmonitored, could cause a fatal cardiac arrest. We know that screening saves lives.
'We also know that we desperately need a new, Governmental strategy to prevent young sudden cardiac deaths – and this is an area that David's friends, family and former colleagues have been so proactive in campaigning for, too.
'It's great to see another screening session taking place in June. Thank you – you're all doing amazing work in memory of David.'
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