C-R-Y Screening team Gareth Jones, Leanne Quinn, Cathy Grant, Justine McComiskey, Louise Irvine, & Sandra Davies.
Last weekend Tír na nÓg GAC Randalstown hosted Cardiac Risk in the young (C-R-Y) screening for young people aged 14 years to 35 years. at their Whitehill club-rooms
Over the weekend more than 200 young people from various sports clubs including Gaelic, soccer and Rugby from all over N Ireland were screened at Tír na nÓg and follow up arranged as appropriate.
This is the second year that Collette Fitzgerald, Health & Wellbeing officer at Tír na nÓg has secured this screening event at the club and they hope to continue to raise awareness through fundraising and screening events.
Over the years we have become aware of young people who have collapsed and died while playing or after playing sport as a result of an undiagnosed congenital cardiac condition, and it was from such a tragedy that awareness and supply of defibrillators in the community was first born.
Brian Fitzgerald Tír na nÓg Randalstown having an ECG completed. Also in the photo is Collette Fitzgerald Health & Wellbeing officer & Gareth Jones screening event manager.
While defibrillators play a vital role in our community when a cardiac incident occurs, it must be remembered that prevention is always better than cure and this is the role that screening plays.
In the UK every week at least 12 young people die from an undiagnosed heart condition. While many conditions are covered under the public health screening programme offered to all children in N Ireland through the GP, Health visitor and school nursing service, heart screening is not covered despite the high number of children who die and the number of devastated families that are bereaved.
The C-R-Y screening programme was formed in 1995 in the Centre for inherited Heart conditions and sports Cardiology at St George’s University hospital in London. From this specialist centre the team have continued to raise awareness, complete research and support bereaved families as well as travelling to screening clinics such as in Tír na nÓg with a cardiologist to conduct ECG’s and Echo cardiograms on the young people. It is this specialist knowledge and training that enables them to read the ECG and detect any defects within the heart. Onward referral for treatment is then organised for the family involved.
C-R-Y is a charity that depends on donations in order to continue this work. To date Tír na nÓg have donated almost £7000 to C-R-Y. This year the chairperson Dearbhail McPartland and committee member Maxine Higgins ran the Omagh half marathon on 7/4/18 while Lisa Ewart will run the London marathon in 22/4/18 to raise funds for C-R-Y. It is hoped that a further £4000 will be donated this year.
Gareth Jones , Dearbhail McPartland Chairperson Tír na nÓg, Lisa Ewart & Maxine Higgins