On the Tuesday 26th July, Anna Firth MP visited the Carli Lansley Foundation and Cardiac Risk in the Young (CRY) screening event at Saxon Hall.
The Carli Lansley Foundation was started by Karl Lansley in memory of his wife, Carli, who died of Sudden Arrhythmic Death Syndrome (SADS) at the age of just 36. Nobody was aware of Carli having SADS at the time of her sudden passing. The syndrome is more commonly seen in 14–35-year-olds, so the Carli Lansley Foundation are trying to raise awareness of the issue and offer free screening to test for cardiac conditions. The foundation needs to raise £5000 per event, which will test 100 people. So far, the foundation has tested 967 people, with 41 having conditions.
Janice Ward, who works for the foundation said,
“I work as an Echo Physiologist. One day I had no childcare, so I had to take my young children to work. My son, Travis, age 6 at the time, asked me if I could use my machine on him so I tested him. I found a large Atrial septal defect in his heart, if I did not test him that day, I can’t imagine what could have happened later down the line. He is now fit and healthy. The best thing to do for all young people is to get yourself screened just in case”.
Dr Saad Fyaz, CRY Research Fellow, said at the event,
“Over a ten-year period, CRY have tested over 105,000 individuals. 2.5% of these tests came back with abnormal results which got looked at further, then 0.3% were found with cardiac conditions with risks associated with cardiac deaths. CRY invests heavily into research to help improve our yield of diagnosis”.
Anna said,
“I am so happy to support such an important cause. The testing is quick and can be done in around 10 minutes. A member of my team got tested whilst we were there – thankfully he was all clear. I’m so passionate about supporting local charities, and this is one of them. I urge everyone in Southend, and Essex to get behind them!”.
