A dad-to-be collapsed and died while taking part in a football match just weeks after he found out that he and his partner were expecting a baby. Jamie Harper fell ill while playing at a five-a-side football centre in Leeds on Sunday, just four days after he and his girlfriend Leah Hayes moved into together.
The 34-year-old was airlifted to Leeds General Infirmary, where he sadly pronounced dead just before 1.41pm, Hull Live reports. The tragedy occurred less than two weeks after he and his partner announced their pregnancy on social media.
Doctors believe that Jamie, who worked as a chef at a Wetherspoon pub, suffered a heart attack which taking part in the football tournament with his colleagues. Heartbroken Leah, 24, said on Tuesday that Jamie was so excited to become a parent for the first time and she knew he would make a great dad.
Leah, who is already mum to four-year-old daughter Evelyn, has said that whether the baby is a boy or a girl, she plans to name them after their father - revealing it's "the only choice now".
.Leah, who is 14 weeks pregnant, said: "He'd just moved in that Thursday, he'd moved all his stuff into my house. He was going to adopt my daughter, she'd started calling him dad. She's never had a dad so having Jamie in our lives for the last year had been great. He was so excited to be a dad, it's all he'd ever wanted was to have children and have a family.
"I'd spoken to him about 11am that day. I'm diabetic and my blood sugar levels were low. His last words to me were 'make sure you have something to eat for the baby, it's going to be a strong rugby player one day. I told him to have a good day and message me when he could."
Leah found out the tragic news after her mum rang her after seeing tributes pouring in for Jamie on social media. Her mum rushed to meet her to break the dreadful news in person and Leah went to see Jamie's parents later that evening. They told her he'd suffered a heart attack, but an autopsy would have to be done to discover what caused it.
Leah added: "His dad and uncle have both had heart attacks, thankfully they've survived. But other than sore feet from working on them all day, Jamie never complained of any health issue. He never said anything about his heart. He was quite fit and healthy. He did the charity football game every year since he'd worked there."
Jamie, from Castleford, West Yorks, had moved in with Leah and her daughter last Thursday. The couple had been together since February, when rugby-mad Jamie took her to a Castleford Tigers match for their first date after they'd met through a mutual friend.
They went on a summer break to Ingoldmells on the Lincolnshire coast, which was Evelyn's first holiday. But Leah has been left heartbroken after their bright future together was cut cruelly short.
She added: "I'm so depressed. This was the happiest I'd ever been and it's all been taken away so quickly. He was the first loving man I'd ever met. He would always go out of his way to help people, no matter what.
"He was at every hospital appointment with me, he'd take my daughter to school and pick her up. He treated her like his own. He would have been an amazing dad."
A fundraising page has been set up to give Jamie, who followed rugby league team Castleford home and away, a fitting send off. Any money left over will be used by Leah, who doesn't work due to poor health, to help cover the costs of equipment for her unborn baby.
She said: "My mum is trying to get in touch with Castleford Tigers to see if they'd come down. Nothing got in the way of his rugby, he was there every week, he followed them home and away. The only time I'd see him upset is if they lost a game. He'd already bought lots of Cas-themed stuff for the baby."
A spokesperson for West Yorkshire Police there were no suspicious circumstances and the Coroner’s Office has been informed.
Visit here to donate to the fundraising page.
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