The family of a talented young footballer who died in his sleep are helping children get their heart screened in his memory. Jake Pickford, 16, from Abertysswg, near Rhymney, died suddenly on August 15, 2018, and was discovered when his sister Chloe went to wake him for food.
It was a sudden and devastating shock to Jake's family who had heard him up late playing video games just the night before he died. An inquest at Newport Coroners' Court in 2019 concluded that Jake had died as a result of sudden arrhythmic death syndrome (SADS) and a conclusion of death by natural causes was recorded.
Over the last four years, his heartbroken family have raised over £20,000 for heart screening charity Cardiac Risk In The Young (CRY). They are using the money to get pupils at Jake's school, Idris Davies School, screened. They are calling for better accessibility of heart screening in the wider population as well as hoping to raise awareness of the risks of SADS in young people.
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Remembering Jack, his mum Gaye, 56, said: "Everything we used to do was always as a family of five [along with Jake's father, Paul, and younger brother, Alfie] . He was very quiet and very loving. He loved spending time on his Xbox and he loved his football - football meant the world to him. Just before he passed away he started going out with his friends more regularly. His friends have been really, really supportive, it hit them very badly. It doesn't just affect the families when something like this happens."
Chloe, 22, added: "It's been very up and down. People say as time goes on it'll get better, but I don't think it will for any of us. We're going through counselling to try and help us. At some points we feel like it does help us, but at other points it feels completely useless. You just don't know how you're going to be feeling until you wake up on that day. You have good days and you have bad days, it's up and down constantly."
Gaye explained how leading up to Jake's death, he had no symptoms of a heart condition. She also said his post-mortem examination also revealed no obvious signs of a problem. You can get more Caerphilly stories by signing up to our WalesOnline newsletter here
"SADS can be caused by no apparent reason at all, but does seem to happen quite a lot in young athletic people. Jake had been perfectly fine, there had been no health issues with him at all. It was such a shocking thing to happen.
"We have since found out that on average this happens to at least 12 young people every week aged between 14 and 35 in the UK. Some of these can be prevented through cardiac screening. This is why we feel it is so important to do the screening - it could prevent this from happening to another family.
"It can happen because there may be an underlying heart issue that has never been detected. Equally though, there can be no symptoms whatsoever. In Jake's case, his post-mortem showed no abnormalities whatsoever. It can happen completely out of the blue which is why they think it was SADS."
Chloe added: "I don't think many people think that something like that could happen. Just because they are so fit and healthy and always on the go, just like Jake who loved his football. You just wouldn't expect it to happen to someone like that."
According to the British Heart Foundation, sudden arrhythmic death syndrome is when someone dies suddenly and unexpectedly from a cardiac arrest, but the cause of the cardiac arrest can’t be found. A cardiac arrest is when your heart suddenly stops pumping blood around your body. This stops your breathing and starves your brain of oxygen, according to the charity. You may have also heard it called sudden adult death syndrome.
Gaye said the family set up a memorial fundraiser through CRY in Jake's memory. She said the first £7,000 raised goes straight to the charity. After that, families can continue raising money to fund heart screenings in their communities which cost £6,000. Thanks to kind people who donated from their local community and beyond, the family raised enough for two screenings at Idris Davies school. She said they have nearly raised enough for a third screening session.
"Our first session was originally planned for April 2020, but that couldn't go ahead because of Covid," she said. "The first screening will happen on May 28, while the second will go ahead on July 2. We are still finalising the details of the third screening. It is available for pupils over the age of 14 and will test 100 pupils at a time."
Gaye said parents are "desperate" to get their children tested when the opportunity arises, but that unfortunately screening isn't always easily accessible.
"Parents desperately want to get their children screened," she said, "But because screening is so expensive to start with and so hard to come by, people just don't know where to go for it. There is just No government funding for it.
"Every year they try to get this through parliament so that screening becomes mandatory for young people, but so far it has been unsuccessful. We would love to see this become mandatory. It angers me because if I had known about this screening previously and the risks involved for young people, I would have most certainly taken Jake for screening. I was a nurse and I didn't really know about it at all."
Chloe and Gaye said it was particularly frustrating since the test is simple, painless and takes little time to complete. Gaye said: "It's an ECG [a test to examine the heart's electrical signals] first of all and then that screening gets looked at on the day by a doctor. If they pick up any abnormalities on that, they then go on to do an echocardiogram [a heart ultrasound scan] and they can then be referred on to a cardiologist if this is necessary.
"If people need an ECG and nothing more, it would probably be a 10 to 15 minute process. If they needed to have the cardiogram that would be around 30 minutes. An ECG is such a quick and painless thing and it baffles me as to why it can't be mandatory. It puts a lot of family's minds at rest, especially when they've heard of this happening to somebody."
Chloe and Gaye thanked everyone who has supported them over the last four years. Chloe said: "Thank you to everyone in the community for continuously supporting us during our fundraising. Thank you to Jake's friends, Lorraine Gronow and Abertysswg Working Men's Club, where we hold our charity events. Thank you to the sponsors of the football team set up in Jake's memory - the Pickford stars - and thank you to staff at Idris Davies School.
" Every time we say we're going to do something to raise money, people contact us with support. Without that support we wouldn't be able to do what we are doing."
