Family hopes heart recorder will help prevent more deaths

7:41am Sunday 11th May 2008

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THE family of a Holmer Green man who died suddenly from a heart condition have donated a lifesaving piece of equipment to a Hughenden surgery.

Barbara and Brian Marsden, of Watchet Lane, handed over the new monitor to Hughenden Valley Surgery in Valley Road.

The couple have been raising money to buy heart monitors for Wycombe surgeries since losing their son Paul.

The 36-year-old former policeman collapsed and died from a heart attack while playing rugby in January 2006.

A post mortem found Paul had Sudden Arrhythmic Death Syndrome, an abnormality in the heart rhythm.

The couple and their two other sons, Barrie and Robert, set up a memorial fund in Paul's name.

Barbara, 64, said: "We really hope this monitor will make people aware of their hearts.

"Paul had just got off the plane from a weekend in New York with his friends.

"He rushed into the house and got his rugby kit, and then he just collapsed on the pitch.

"There was nothing anyone could see was wrong.

"No-one knew he had anything wrong with him.

"We hope this cardiac event recorder will help diagnose heart conditions and alert doctors to potential problems."

Paul was a former Thames Valley Police officer who had been working as a policeman in Bermuda.

Last year, the family gave a £3,000 heart monitor to Highfield Surgery, Highfield Way, Hazlemere.