Ham & High, 24th February 2021
Twelve year old Amy Athwal-Kirby passed away from sudden arrhythmic death in her sleep in December, despite having no previous symptoms of the condition. Her mother Beewan Athwal says she had a normal day before she passed away.
“She ate lunch and dinner well and she watched [the film] ‘Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse’ in the evening,” said Beewan. “After that it was the same as usual – she went up to bed, got ready and called down ‘love you’, and she went to sleep.”
Her mother describes Amy as ‘caring and kind’ and as having ‘lovely way of making everyone around her feel special’.
“Amy was just really sweet and kind, and interested in everything,” she said. “Her relationships with her friends and with family were really important to her. She made such an effort to keep everyone close to her. She was funny and she used to make people laugh all the time doing little practical jokes. She used to constantly make us little handmade gifts, just to show her love.”
Amy’s family is now fundraising for Cardiac Risk in the Young (CRY) to help prevent other children from losing their lives suddenly and other families from experiencing the loss they are now. So far, the family’s fundraising efforts for CRY have received more than £11,000 in public donations made in tribute Amy.
“I know that Amy wouldn’t want anyone to suffer the way she did, or have anyone else’s family go through what we are at the moment,” her mother said. “So I just think now, if she knew what happened to her, she’d want to prevent this happening to other children.”
