‘My sister had her whole life ahead of her. Then she collapsed and died while out for a run’ – UK Times

Aged 27 and with her life ahead of her, Claire Taylor was excited for her future.

A newly-qualified teacher living in Nottingham with her fiancé Paul Betts, she was planning their wedding and set to begin her special educational needs teacher training.

Claire, who was born in Liverpool, regularly went for runs to clear her head and, on 26 August 2016, the Friday of a bank holiday weekend, she did just that.

But during that run, she collapsed in the street unexpectedly.

People in a nearby home ran out to try to help her, and an ambulance was called to take her to hospital – but Claire could not be saved.

Her sister, Katie Taylor-Rossall, 35, said she and her partner were due to travel to Nottingham that weekend to try on bridesmaid dresses for Claire and Paul’s wedding when she received the heartbreaking call from her parents to say Claire had died.

About her sister, Katie told The Independent: “She was just really loving life and doing everything she could.

“We’d just done all of the wedding dress shopping for her, and I was already planning [for the wedding]. We were already meant to be going down because we were doing bridesmaid dress try on and all of that kind of stuff.”

She added: “It was just a complete cardiac arrest on the street, completely out of the blue.”

Claire’s death hit her family hard, and at first, they did not know what had caused Claire to collapse. The family later found out that she had died from sudden arrhythmogenic death syndrome (Sads) – a genetic heart condition that can cause sudden death in young, otherwise healthy people.

Katie said her sister had experienced some heart palpitations in the months before her death, but was otherwise fit and healthy, and the family was told there were no signs pointing to her being at risk of a cardiac event.

“How scary it was, my sister had just collapsed and died with no signs and symptoms”, Katie said.

The family worked with charity Cardiac Risk in the Young (CRY) following Claire’s death to try to find out the cause and, crucially, helped them check whether they too were at any risk of heart complications.

“It’s terrifying when somebody dies, and you don’t know what it is or whether you could be affected as well,” she said.

“We still don’t really know why this happened to Claire”, Katie said. “But we know that it isn’t carried by my parents or myself – the signs and symptoms.”

According to CRY, at least 12 young people die of undiagnosed heart conditions every week in the UK. The charity works to reduce the frequency of sudden cardiac death in young people and support those diagnosed with life-changing conditions.

A decade on from Claire’s death, Katie, who lives in Preston and works for the NHS, will swim three large lakes as part of an effort to raise £10,000 for CRY in her sister’s memory. They want to fund more screenings so heart conditions can be spotted and diagnosed.

She will swim 24 miles across Coniston, Ullswater and Windermere in the Lake District, making up a swimming ultramarathon.

Friends and family are also taking part in challenges and organising fundraising events to help reach the target.

On their fundraising, Katie said: “It is going towards further research and towards putting on more screenings so that we can prevent this from happening to anybody else, which is just.

“We know how devastating it is when somebody at the start of their incredible life then disappears from that life.

“There are going to be thousands of people across the nation that know somebody, or know somebody who knows somebody who has suffered in this way, but it is preventable,” Katie said.

“If we can prevent a single family going through what we’ve gone through, then that’s what it’s all about at the end of the day, isn’t it?

“We can’t bring Claire back, but we can prevent this happening to somebody else.”

You can donate to the fundraiser here.