Andrew Quew and Helen Barnes from Ryde hosted a quiz night at Binstead Community Centre on the Isle of Wight to raise money and awareness in memory of Andrew’s wife, Gemma Quew, and in aid of the charity Cardiac Risk in the Young (CRY). Gemma was only 30 when she passed away in 2011 from an undiagnosed heart condition. The money will be used to help the Gemma Quew Memorial Fund host a day’s cardiac screening on 16th November when 100 young people on the Isle of Wight will be screened to look for possible heart conditions. CRY’s mission is to identify those that are at risk from sudden cardiac death. These conditions include thickening of the heart muscle or an abnormal structure of the heart, and irregularities of the impulses that control the rhythm of the heart. Youngsters involved in sport, in particular, stress their heart the most and if they have an underlying cardiac abnormality, they are more likely to be at risk. It is important to emphasise that exercise is not harmful and sport itself does not cause cardiac arrest, but can exacerbate an undetected condition.
The quiz night was well attended with 16 teams battling it out for first place. Andrew Quew spoke about CRY and played a video of his daughter Caitlin giving a speech at the CRY Parliamentary Reception. Question master Steve Barnes ran the quiz, involving everyone in the games of ‘Heads & Tails’ and ‘Guess the number of sweets’. It was a fun evening with some taxing questions and the winning team being ‘The Butcher Boys’. Each team kindly donated raffle prizes and along with special vouchers from Island businesses – ASDA, White Hart Inn, Dinosaur Isle, Isle of Wight Steam Railway, Bartletts Service Station and Hummingbirds Beauty Salon – a total of 45 prizes were given out raising over £470. Clare Jones, Community Champion at ASDA, Newport, donated a beautiful hamper from ASDA who are very kindly topping up our fundraising total for which we are so grateful. Thank you to everyone involved for their support.
