But Cardiac Risk in the Young (Cry) was forced to halt its screening programme as the virus took hold. Doctors fear they will be unable to get the service back up and running fully for some months, meaning many more cases will go undetected. An average of 12 young people die of undiagnosed heart conditions every week in the UK.
Cry chief executive Dr Steve Cox said: “Cry stopped screening on March 16.
“We have already had to cancel more than 8,000 screening appointments and this will continue until at least the end of August, by which time more than 12,000 appointments will have been cancelled.
“This will result in more than 40 young people not receiving a diagnosis of a potentially life threatening condition and the treatment, lifestyle advice or surgery that would reduce their risk of suffering a cardiac arrest.”
Many of the medics who usually run the programme have been called to the NHS frontline.
Dr Cox said the charity is monitoring the restoration of NHS services as an indication of when and how it will be safe to restart the programme.
They may have to halve the number of people screened each day to allow for social distancing, and personal protective equipment will be vital.
The charity is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year and had hoped to screen 30,000 people by the end of 2020 to reach the milestone of a quarter of a million tests since 1995.
Dr Cox said: “Every further month screening events are cancelled or postponed will result in a further 3,000 appointments being cancelled and another 10 people being left to live with an undiagnosed cardiac condition that could cause them to have a cardiac arrest and sudden death.
“These figures do not include the hundreds of young people who are identified with cardiac conditions through screening which may not be immediately life-threatening, but will lead to serious problems in their fourth or fifth decade of life if they are not identified, monitored and treated.”
Professor Sanjay Sharma, the cardiologist who oversees Cry’s screening programme at St George’s, University of London, said he hoped young people who have had their appointments cancelled would sign up when bookings reopen.
He said: “Although cancellation of these clinics is completely understandable to minimise the spread of the viral infection, there will be a number of young people who will not receive a diagnosis and treatment of a potentially serious, and probably silent, cardiac abnormality.”
Like most charities, Cry has seen its income hit by the pandemic after major fundraising events including the London Marathon were postponed.
Dr Cox added: “We will come through this. But every month that this goes on puts a greater strain on the charity.”
The Daily Express is backing Cry’s campaign for more young people to be screened for cardiac conditions through our Young Hearts crusade.
To donate to Cry, click here.
Case study
Blake Azoug, 16, discovered he had been living with a serious heart condition after a Cry screening in September 2018.
He was diagnosed with Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome after his electrocardiogram (ECG) showed an abnormal heart rhythm.
The teenager had been feeling faint occasionally when standing up or climbing stairs, but did not realise that was unusual.
Blake’s mother Mandy Fields said that without the test his condition would have gone undetected for some time.
She said: “If he had not had the ECG we would have just thought he was anxious.
“Had he not had the screening and complained of palpitations, I would have said: ‘Maybe you’re overdoing your revision for your mock exams, don’t worry about it. Try and take it a bit easy.’
“The thought of him potentially having something really serious would have never have entered my head.”
Blake, who lives in Kiveton Park, Sheffield, was referred to a cardiologist and prescribed a beta blocker.
The severity of his condition became clear when one doctor warned that if he wanted to play sport, a defibrillator should be kept nearby.
After his symptoms worsened, he underwent surgery last December to remove a faulty electrical pathway in his heart. His symptoms have since disappeared.
Mandy, 37, added: “Not knowing that you might have a ticking timebomb or something that might cause problems is a scary thought.
“Once you’ve been screened and you’ve got that information, that’s much more empowering to then be able to take action.”
Blake’s screening was funded by the family of Alex Reid, whose mother Heather helped launch our crusade last year.
Alex was just 16 years old when she died of a cardiac arrest the night before her final GCSE exam in 2012.
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