North Yorkshire couple raise awareness of rare heart condition
It's after the death of their 22 year old son Tom Parsons
A North Yorkshire couple are urging anyone worried about their heart health to go get checked - after their teenage son died from an undiagnosed condition.
22 year old Tom Parsons from Malton collapsed on holiday in Greece. Remembering the day her son died, Sue said: “We lost our lovely son Tom in 2016.
“He was on holiday in Zante in Greece with a group of friends and they were in a taxi one morning on the way to a beach when suddenly he started shaking.
“He just threw his head back and at first his friends thought he was messing about, but it soon became clear he wasn’t and that something was very wrong.”
One of Tom’s friends and an off-duty doctor who was passing started to do CPR on him and they managed to call an ambulance, but sadly Tom died before reaching the hospital.
“It was absolutely devastating - you don’t expect your children to go before you,” added Sue. “He was a lovely young man, sports orientated who loved rugby, biking, swimming, going to the races...we miss him so much every day”.
He had myocarditis - a rare disease that causes inflammation of the heart muscle.
His parents are now trying to trying to raise raise awareness, Sue tells us: "Predominately it's young males, they are usually very active, so it's masks, it hides itself, behind them going out and doing all this jogging and running. Tom loved his running and was part of Malton rugby club, went out jogging and swam."
Through the Tom Parsons Trust they are also raising money for research into the conditions. Sue says scientists are close to a breakthrough:
"They are in the process of developing a blood test, just a simple blood test that could save so many lives, and if it's caught early enough, obviously it can be treated."