England Athletics, UKA and the other home country governing bodies are alert to our responsibilities to all participants in athletics in respect of all aspects of health and safety. One particular area that young athletes and their parents must be aware of is the risk of cardiac problems.
There have been instances of young athletes suffering potentially fatal heart conditions without being aware that they are at risk.
England Athletics would like to make you aware of a piece of work that has been undertaken by UKA. UKA has worked with Cardiac Risk in the Young (CRY) for several years, providing a screening service to athletes on the World Class Performance Programme. UKA and CRY are now seeking to encourage more athletes to use CRY’s screening service to help to identify any cardiac problems that may be otherwise hidden.
CRY is a charity that was established to raise awareness of conditions that can lead to the sudden cardiac death of young people. They operate a screening programme at a number of clinics around the UK and support this with mobile units that travel to other locations.
Full information about CRY and their services can be found on their website at www.c-r-y.org.uk. Young people between the age of 14 and 35 who would like to have cardiac testing can go to www.testmyheart.org.
You can also see www.uka.org.uk/governance/health-safety/cardiac-screening-for-athletes/ for information on work being done by UKA in this area.
[text above from from England Athletics email dated 01/05/2012]
On looking at their calendar, there are some places at St Georges Hospital, Tooting on 22nd September, 6th October and 10th November which are not yet fully booked.