The Gloucestershire school has joined with the charity Cardiac Risk in the Young to do heart tests that can find muscle issues and electrical problems in the heart. Eve Scarle, the school's health and care leader, said, "Many heart issues in young people show no signs until it's too late and they have a heart attack."
Depending on the test, people will be offered a heart scan for more detail and may be sent to their doctor for more checks. "Since our heart check day started in 2013, students, staff, and locals have found heart issues they didn't know about," Ms. Scarle said. "We want to find these problems so young people can get the right care and help and lower the number of young people dying from heart attacks."
The check is paid with help from the Ashley Goodwin Memorial Fund. Ashley's parents, Linda and Geoff, made a fund for Ashley to raise money and talk about heart checks.
Ms. Goodwin said their lives "changed forever" when Ashley died from a heart attack. "He had run the London Marathon in 2005 and 2006 and was doing police school, we couldn't believe his sudden death when he was just sitting on a couch writing notes," she said.
"For each life saved by early finds, it also saves those of parents, siblings, friends, and, in some cases, partners and kids, who will not feel the loss that we and many other families have," she said.
Boss of CRY, Dr. Steven Cox, said, "There were no signs of a heart flaw, which is why CRY thinks checks are so key, especially for those involved in sports and often active."