CRY heart-screening event comes to Kirkwall

After being fully booked within hours of being announced, a mobile heart screening unit, offering free ECG tests to young people, is in Kirkwall this week.

The Cardiac Risk in the Young (CRY) event, at the Pickaquoy Centre, was announced in January and within hours all 200 appointments had been booked.

The Orkney event has been made possible due to the hard work of two local fundraisers, Kathleen Bain and Nancy Gibson.

In 2011, Kathleen’s son, Alan, died of Sudden Arrhythmic Death Syndrome (SADS), aged just 30.

Since his death, his family and friends have rallied together to raise funds to bring CRY’s mobile screening services to the county.

Speaking back in January, Kathleen said: “We had hoped to fill all spaces before the screening, but never expected such a quick response!

“It shows that awareness is spreading, which is good, but we are really sorry for the people who could not get a booking. We have a second screening booked for April, 2017, and anyone can attend any other CRY screenings throughout the UK through the year.”

She went on: “It is also important to point out that, while an ECG can show up various abnormalities, it may not show everything, so anyone with symptoms, or concerns, should mention these at the screening and also contact their local GP.”

Nancy added: “Young people never think that somebody could just stand up one minute and be gone the next — that a heart just stops working.

“It is not that people ignore it, it is just that they have no knowledge or awareness of it — they just wouldn’t ever think it could happen. That is the reason why we are doing all this.”