Two mums fundraise for heart screening for under 35s after losing their children to heart attacks

  • Donna and Lesley spoke with ITV Granada Reports Journalist Lucille Brobbey about their story's and fundraising efforts for Cardiac Risk in the Young (CRY)

Two mums have joined forces to fund heart screening days for young people after tragically losing their children to sudden cardiac attacks within two weeks of each other.

Donna Parker and Lesley Mease, who live just four miles apart, never knew each other until their lives were shattered last summer.

Donna, from in Dalton-in-Furness in Cumbria, lost her daughter Vicky Parker, 30, to a sudden cardiac attack on the 17th of August 2023. The fit and healthy mother-of-two had no prior symptoms.

Mother-of-two Vicky Parker was just 30 years old when she died from a cardiac arrest. Credit: Family photo

“She travelled to Oxford with her partner and the girls, went on the train, basically got to the house they were stopping in with family members and I don’t think she had even been here an hour and she was sat in an arm chair and she had a cardiac arrest," Donna said.

Two weeks later, Lesley Mease's son Wilson Shepherd, who was very athletic and ran multiple triathlons, died from a Sudden arrhythmic death syndrome (SADs) aged 25 on the 31st August 2023.

Lesley said she had seen Wilson the day before he died and "he was absolutely fine".

Lesley with her son Wilson on his graduation day at Loughborough University. Credit: Family photo

"Me and my daughter were walking my granddaughter the next morning and Wilson’s girlfriend said 'has either of us seen or heard from Wilson'.

"She said that normally he would have messaged her by now and that they would have had a chat.

"And I said to her 'oh gosh he would have slept in'.

"So we walked round to Wilson’s no answer, and I got the key, went up and I found him.”

Wilson Shepherd (left) and Vicky (Parker) both attended Dowdales secondary school in Cumbria. Credit: Family photos

Lesley continued: "Neither of them had any prior symptoms at all. It's incomprehensible."

"I think reality is starting to set in for both of us now very much and it is now becoming very, very real, that this is it forever", Donna added.

According to the charity Cardiac Risk in the Young (CRY), 12 young people in the UK lose their lives to sudden cardiac death every week and in 80 per cent of those cases, there are no prior symptoms.

In the wake of their loss, Donna and Lesley turned to each other for strength — and a purpose.

Together, they’re raising money for CRY to fund lifesaving cardiac screening days for people under the age of 35 which could help identify abnormalities and save lives.

One screening day through CRY costs £6,800 and Donna and Lesley are determined to fund as many as possible to spare other families from the pain they continue to endure.

Donna said: "There is nothing we can do to save ours now, but what we can do is try and stop it happening again. If [the heart screening] just picked up one, and saved them and saved their families from going through this absolute nightmare that we've now got to live for the rest of our lives."

Lesley added: "Whether our children could have been saved, we don't know but we wouldn't want it to happen to anybody else."

If you would like to donate to Donna and Lesley’s funding pots for cardiac screenings through CRY, please click here and here.