An Edinburgh dad hopes to prevent others from going through the heartbreak of losing their young children to heart conditions after his own 15-year-old son tragically died of undiagnosed myocarditis.
Ross Cowe, who works as a performance manager, will be joining the Edinburgh Kiltwalk on September 18, 2022, to raise money for the Christopher Cowe Memorial Fund, which is a part of the Cardiac Risk in the Young charity fundraising efforts.
A simple ECG test can detect potential heart conditions in the young; however, it is natural not to consider it as most teenagers do not show any symptoms.
Ross, 49, said: “In Christopher’s case, there weren’t any warning signs, like chest pain, difficulty breathing or anything like that. There wasn’t anything for us, as his parents, to pick up on.
“So, this has to be the focus for us – we are looking to raise money to do those heart screenings and to raise awareness too.”
Reflecting on the importance of preventive heart screenings, Ross said: “Somebody said to me six or seven months after Christopher passed that we do MOTs on our cars every year without thinking about it, but we don’t put enough emphasis on checking what is probably the most important organ in our body.
“It’s not until something happens that people tend to think about it.”
“We hope to get more people involved, more of those who knew Christopher, so we can share memories and experiences we all had with him. It is an opportunity to continue to remember Christopher.”
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