Alex was a very active child when growing up. He was always running around and taking part in football tournaments at our local adventure playground.
On the 21st February 2004 Alex got his open water Padi diving licence, he was 10 years old. On the 26th June 2005 he got his karate black belt, Alex was 12.
On 18th January 2015, we had a knock on the door, it was a policeman. Alex was found dead in his university accommodation (Sheffield Hallam) at 16:45 that afternoon. He was 21 years old. To say our world fell apart would be a massive understatement and no words could really convey our heartbreak and loss of our only child.
The coroner could not find the cause of Alex’s death, so we went ahead and had his funeral on the 31st January, not knowing what the cause of death was.
We did not know the cause of Alex’s death for 3 months and 10 days. Then on the 29th April the coroner called us to say that Alex had a condition called ischemic heart disease.
This news broke our hearts all over again as this condition could have been detected when Alex fainted at the year 7 sports day, as he was out cold for 10 minutes and was taken to Newham Hospital where he had an ECG. They found nothing wrong so we took him home. This was a month after Alex getting his black belt. If a simple blood test for hypercholesterolemia was done, he would still be with us today. We are starting this fund in Alex’s memory in the hope that testing can be reduced to the age of 12, with not only ECG’s, but other medical tests.
Alex was our only child and our world, and we love and miss him so much. The news of Alex’s death caused his Nana Carol to have a massive stroke and she passed away two days later.
After finding out the cause of Alex’s death his friends were shocked, saying that he was strong and would always take the lead when meeting up.
We would hate for other parents to go through this heartache. Through CRY we have found out that 12 young people die a week, and that’s in the UK alone. 12 is too many and we would like to get it down to 0.
Sue & Steve Camilleri
