Lack of support made sudden death harder to bear

JENNY RIORDAN was booking her next trip abroad on her laptop when her heart stopped and she died in the arms of a friend.

The 26-year-old had so much to live for and her loss has left an emptiness in the Dublin home of her heartbroken family.

“We miss her terribly, she was so vivacious, you’d never know there was anything wrong with her,” her mother Kate explained.

Sadly, the young KPMG employee knew her life could end at any moment. Jenny was just 22 when she learned she had cardiac myopathy, a life-threatening condition marked by an irregular heartbeat.

She was in her final year at Trinity College Dublin when one day she felt light-headed and fainted.

“I thought like mothers of young girls, she wasn’t eating enough,” her mother said. “The doctor immediately sent her to the Adelaide Hospital and her condition was diagnosed on the spot,” she added.

“We were shell-shocked, we had to take this condition on board,” Kate said. “Seeing your child being told they have a condition that is ultimately going to kill them is horrific.”

At first, Jenny was very anxious about her condition, but she went on to get first class honours in her degree and progressed to do a Masters degree at Smurfit Business College.

“She went on to live as normal a life as a 23- or 24-year-old girl could: she was excelling at her job, she was a bright, bubbly shopaholic and we hoped and prayed that with medication and support she’d be okay,” Kate explained.

But without warning, Jenny died in May 2002.

“We knew Jenny would never live to be an old woman, but we thought we would get more than four years,” Kate said.

For Jenny’s family the lack of support available at the time made a difficult situation worse. However, the charity CRY (cardiac risk in the young) has since been set up to raise awareness about sudden death, to promote mobile screening programmes and fund equipment for doctors’ surgeries as well as provide counselling.

The charity receives no Government funding and is appealing to people running in the forthcoming marathons to raise much-needed funds.

For more information on CRY contact Marie Green on 01-8395438.