A teenager who died after collapsing during a playground kick about has become the face of a national campaign.
Nicholas Thorne, 13, of the Cravens, Smallfield, died two years ago after suffering a heart attack at Oakwood School in Horley.
Now his parents have thrown their weight behind the Cardiac Risk in the Young (CRY) campaign to raise awareness.
Nicholas’ face appears alongside seven others on a postcard which symbolises the eight people who die each week from sudden cardiac death.
The people, who are aged between eight and 24, had no apparent symptoms or history of bad health before they died.
The aim is to get people to send the postcards to their MP to encourage them to become a member of CRY’s Party Parliamentary Group, where they can support the campaign.
Nicholas’s dad Rob, mum Eunice, 42, brother Dean, 13 and sisters Charlotte 11 and Amy, four, have received support from the charity since his death.
They are eager to get a screening programme introduced in schools to stop other people suffering the pain that their family has gone through.
The screening would be an ECG reading which could pick up any abnormalities.
“That 10 minutes of screening could save a life, that’s the point we need to get across,” said Mr Thorne.
The 43-year-old, who runs a print business, has been a major supporter of the campaign, providing the printing of the postcards for free.
Speaking at the campaign’s south-east launch at Centenary Hall, Wheelers Lane, Smallfield, on Friday, he said: “We as a family have been grateful for the support CRY has given us.
“We need to maintain the pressure to ensure as much as possible is done.
“We should support CRY in every way possible as they have done to us in our hours of need.”
At the end of an emotional speech, Mr Thorne broke down, saying to Alison Cox, the founder and chief executive of CRY: “From my heart I thank you. Without you I don’t think we’d have got through.”
She told the launch meeting: “By showing just some of the faces behind the stories we read and hear about all too often we can help people begin to understand this cruel killer, and highlight the fact that it can happen to anyone, at any time, usually without warning.”
It is hoped the postcards will maintain the momentum set earlier this year when the Department of Health agreed to a new chapter to the National Service Framework on Coronary Heart Disease, dedicated to deaths among young people.
