Cheshire mother's mission to get young people heart scans after son's sudden death

ITV Granada Reports correspondent Tim Scott has been speaking to Deborah Dixon whose son died as a result of a undiagnosed heart condition.

A mother who has helped save hundreds of lives by fundraising for heart scans for young people after the sudden death of her son has met a woman who owes her life to her hard work.

Aaron Dixon died in 2011 of an undiagnosed heart condition at his home, in Tarporley in Cheshire, at the age of 23.

Previous medical tests failed to spot that he had arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy, a rare condition that causes the heart muscle to be replaced by fatty tissue.

"I just heard the most horrendous scream," Deborah explains. "I knew instantly that something was wrong. I grabbed the phone and called 999. The paramedics arrived but we had already lost Aaron."

After finding out that more than 600 young people die of similar undiagnosed conditions every year, Deborah set up a fund in her son's name, with the charity Cardiac Risk in the Young, to get more young people screenings.

"10 to 15 minutes will give you that piece of mind", she said. "That's all it takes. I think all young people should be screened but unfortunately there's no national programme. That's the reason why I do what I do."

The heart scans, open to anyone aged 14 to 35, have saved hundreds of lives, including beautician Georgia Briscall who needed keyhole surgery after a screening picked up an atrial septal defect.

"They [doctors] said that the blood is pumping around the wrong way", Georgia explains. "They said that is why you're feeling tired. They said my heart was doing the opposite of what it should do."

Georgia says she "loves Debs" and owes her life to her. She said: The things that she does is just incredible. From what she's been through to helping so many people - it's just incredible."

Deborah has fundraised an amazing £700,000 for the CRY charity to date and both she and Georgia are urging all young people to get their heart-scans to prevent any more needless deaths in the future.

According to CRY, one in 100 young people have conditions which will require monitoring and could cause health problems later in life. Every week, 12 fit and healthy young people die of an undiagnosed cardiac condition.

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