Hampshire Cricket Foundation & CRY Host Screening Weekend

The free heart screening sessions were all part of an initiative which looks to prevent sudden cardiac death in young people

Hampshire Cricket Foundation, the aligned charity to Hampshire Cricket and the The Ageas Bowl, came together with Cardiac Risk in the Young (CRY) to deliver free heart screening sessions for members of the local community at the The Ageas Bowl last weekend.

A team of CRY’s cardiac experts visited the home of Hampshire Cricket on the 25th and 26th January to screen 200 patients, including Eastleigh MP Paul Holmes who took part in a screening, all as part of an initiative which looks to prevent sudden cardiac death in young people.

One in every 300 young people that undertake these tests with CRY are identified as having a potentially life-threatening condition and the programme has already achieved great success, led by Consultant Professor, Sanjay Sharma.

The screenings, which were funded by the Hampshire Cricket Foundation, are part of the charity’s ‘Changing Lives. Saving Lives’ initiative which aims to deliver a healthier future for people across the county.

We are delighted to support CRY’s cardiac screening programme and I would like to thank the many generous donors to the Hampshire Cricket Foundation, especially those from our annual Ladies Lashes Lunch that have enabled us to do this.

Stuart Robertson, Hampshire Cricket Foundation Director

It is a great honour to be associated with the new ‘Changing Lives. Saving Lives’ initiative spearheaded by Hampshire Cricket Foundation. The campaign shares the same ethos as CRY and we were delighted to bring our team of experts to the The Ageas Bowl, along with long-standing supporter and campaigner, Graham Hunter, who has helped raise over £67,000 for CRY’s screening programme in memory of his beloved daughter, Claire. Every week in the UK, around 12 young people under the age of 35 die suddenly from a previously undiagnosed heart condition. 80% of these deaths will occur with no prior symptoms. However, we know that cardiac screening saves lives and in Italy, where screening is mandatory for all young people engaged in organised sport, they have reduced the incidence of young sudden cardiac death by a staggering 89%.

We would like to thank everyone involved at Hampshire Cricket Foundation for funding these two days of screening - working together with Graham Hunter - and for everything they are doing to raise awareness of young sudden cardiac death and for reaching out to young members of their local community.

Dr Steven Cox, Cardiac Risk in the Young Chief Executive

The Hampshire Cricket Foundation, previously known as Hampshire Cricket in the Community, relaunched in December with the aim of raising funds to support four key objectives.

The charity will: 

  1. Provide a life-saving public access defibrillator and training for its use for each of the 160 affiliated cricket clubs in Hampshire,
  2. Screen every 14-year-old club cricketer in Hampshire each year and to support a range of other cardiovascular screening programmes at the The Ageas Bowl and at facilities across the County
  3. Introduce a Healthy Heart Programme across all Hampshire primary schools to help reduce the levels of childhood obesity
  4. Offer 3,000 heart patients a supervised exercise and rehabilitation programme each year.

The charity launch was marked with a special lunch at the The Ageas Bowl on Wednesday 11th December with hundreds turning out to mark the occasion. The event helped to raise more than £14,000 for the charity and also included a cheque presentation of £10,000 to CRY as well as four life-saving defibrillators to local cricket clubs; Sparsholt, Steep, Hythe & Dibden and Gosport Borough.

For more information about Hampshire Cricket Foundation, please follow the link below, contact community@ageasbowl.com or call 023 8047 2002.

Hampshire Cricket Foundation

The Hampshire Cricket Foundation is a registered charity (Charity No. 1152024).

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