SADS Awareness Week 2022
SADS Awareness Week will take place from 3-9th October 2022 and is organised by Leicestershire based heart charity the Joe Humphries Memorial Trust (JHMT).
SADS Awareness Week 2022
SADS Awareness Week will take place from 3-9th October 2022 and is organised by Leicestershire based heart charity the Joe Humphries Memorial Trust (JHMT).
The JHMT was set up after the death of Rothley teenager Joe Humphries in October 2012. Joe died from SADS while out on a training jog near his home. SADS stands for sudden arrhythmic death syndrome, a collective term for a group of deadly genetic heart conditions which cause a disturbance with the heart rhythm and can lead to sudden cardiac arrest.
Every year during the week of the anniversary of Joe's untimely death, JHMT hold the annual SADS Awareness Week to remind and educate healthcare professionals, sports-related professionals and parents and carers of young people about the dangers of undiagnosed heart conditions like SADS. Every week in the UK, 12 young people (12-35 years old) die due to undiagnosed genetic heart conditions like SADS.
This year the JHMT SADS awareness week programme will be a hybrid version combining the use of online social media platforms to raise awareness of sudden cardiac death and SADS prevention in the young and the Trust's community 'hands-on' lifesaving training proogrramme with local sports clubs and groups.
To launch the week, on Monday 3 October, JHMT joins forces with EMAS and Leicester City Council to urge defibrillator guardians to register their device on the national database, called The Circuit.
On Wednesday the 5th of June, we highlight the role of the ICC clinic in Leicester. We are once again delighted to have patient representation in SADS week and get to hear the incredible story of James, and how he lives life with an ICC and an ICD in place. We hope to share joint content of the clinic with our partnership with UHL.
In addition, Dr Steve Mears (Senior Lecturer in Sport and Exercise Nutrition, Loughborough University) once again reminds us of the importance of why exercise is so important for us all!
On Thursday 6th October, the SADS in sport talk & training to students on the Talented Athletes Scholarship Scheme (TASS) will take place at Loughborough College.
Dr Harshil Dhutia, Consultant Cardiologist at Glenfield Hospital and JHMT medical lead, will also give a key insight into how someone copes living with an inherited cardiac condition (ICC). He will also highlight some of the work done by the ICC clinic at University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust.
The week will also give another opportunity to raise awareness of UK Coaching's free lifesaving eLearning toolkit for sports coaches, personal trainers, club officials, referees, volunteers, parents, players and spectators. The toolkit, funded by Sport England was developed in 2021 in collaboration with The Joe Humphries Memorial Trust, Resuscitation Council and St John Ambulance.
If anyone needed a reminder about the importance of being prepared and equipped for a cardiac emergency, it was on 12th June earlier last year at the Euros when the world watched on as Denmark's Christian Eriksen suddenly collapsed in cardiac arrest which came with no warning.
