'Don't let others die from hidden heart problems'
Jim Scott/BBCA family is calling on the government to screen younger people for hidden heart conditions after losing their son at 33.
Dan Cook, from Hartlepool, died in May 2024 from a sudden cardiac arrest when he was just 10 weeks away from getting married.
His mum and stepdad, Lesley and Robin Perkins, said screening for heart conditions was not widely available for those under the age of 35. They have have set up a memorial fund to pay for scans for others in the town.
A spokesperson for the Department for Health and Social Care said it was guided by the UK National Screening Committee, which is re-examining the evidence and will open a public consultation in spring.
A keen musician who was fit and healthy, Cook was building a life for himself in London and died while at the gym. He had never been screened for a heart condition.
'Can be prevented'
His stepdad said it "still doesn't seem real", while his mum added: "Sometimes I think he's still in London."
Cook had a condition on the left-side of his heart and his mum said if he had access to screening they would have known "and perhaps he would be here now".
The memorial fund set up in his honour sees money donated to Cardiac Risk in the Young (CRY), which raises awareness of sudden cardiac death and support for those affected alongside a screening programme and further research.
According to the charity, 12 seemingly fit and healthy young people die from an undiagnosed heart condition in the UK every week.
Cook's stepdad said: "It's just amazing that there's so many people just dropping dead who are young, generally fit and it shouldn't happen you know because it can be prevented with screening.
"If you do screening you will find a certain percentage of these young people have got a heart problem, which means you can either take medication or have some sort of operation and can be fixed and you don't have to go through what we've gone through."
His mum added: "Hopefully with our actions, Dan's death won't be in vain."
