The parents of a Crewe teenager who died suddenly in his sleep have launched a campaign to raise awareness of the mystery condition which killed him.
Daniel Boughey, 14, died the day after his family had been filmed for an episode of Channel 4’s hit reality show Wife Swap
at their home in Alton Street at Crewe.
It is believed he was a victim of the little known illness Sudden Arrhythmic Death Syndrome (SADS).
His mother Karen Reece, 35, and her husband Daren, 38, have appeared on national TV in a bid to raise awareness of the condition.
They are now calling for all teenagers to be screened for all underlying heart problems to stop this happening again.
Mrs Reece said: “Something needs to be done to make sure this does not happen again.
‘I am not sleeping and when I do I struggle to get out of bed in the morning. I am so scared it will happen again to one of my other children who are aged nine and 17. We need to tests teenagers to raise awareness of SADS.’
SADS is a rare condition caused by an undetected heart defect which can often take pathologists months to confirm after someone’s death.
Many of the heart defects are hereditary and family members are only screened after the loss of a sibling, child or parent.
Mr and Mrs Reece are now aiming to raise funds for heart charity Cardiac Risk in the Young (CRY) which is campaigning for screening to detect the cardiac abnormalities.
SADS claims the lives of at least eight apparently fit and healthy people under the age of 30 every week and there re 400 reported deaths nationally as a result of the condition each year.
Alison Cox, chief executive of CRY said: “These deaths are the cutting edge of grief. It is incomprehensible to people when someone who is fit and healthy and young can die when they’ve not shown any detectable symptoms.
