Tomorrow night will be bittersweet for Zoe Dickinson. She was the girlfriend of Craig Hodgkinson, the Royal Marine who died suddenly during a rugby game last November. On Friday evening she will watch the two sides he once played for lock in a scrum.

"There will be a gap in the team," she said. "There will be someone else playing number 10. Having not been to a Royal Navy match since, I think that will be quite difficult for me."

However, at the same time she believes the game between the Royal Navy and the Glasgow Hawks at Old Anniesland is the memorial Craig would have chosen himself.

"They are the two teams he played for and he would have loved to have been there," she said.

The event will not only commemorate the Marine from Strathblane, who had served in the Gulf but who was due to move back to Scotland, closer to Miss Dickinson, when he died. As many as eight apparently fit and healthy young people are killed every week from undiagnosed heart conditions in the UK.

In Scotland the lives of 65 people under the age of 25 were taken by sudden cardiovascular events in 2002 - the latest year for which figures are available.

The hope is money raised at the memorial match will help buy 20 defibrillators in a bid to reduce this shocking death toll.

When someone collapses, these machines can be used to analyse the casualty's heart rhythm and then, if required, deliver an electronic shock which can restart normal contractions. By ensuring such equipment, along with people trained to use them, are readily available at sporting events Miss Dickinson and Mr Hodgkinson's family want to prevent other tragedies. They also hope their efforts will help trigger more investment in this safety net.

Miss Dickinson, a doctor herself who is soon to start specialist GP training, first thought of the idea just weeks after Mr Hodgkinson died.

Although not at the game in Plymouth when the 27-year-old collapsed, Miss Dickinson, also 27, said: "I do know from having seen other people in these situations it is imperative that people get the kick to the heart as soon as possible after something happens. Taking someone to the nearest hospital does add minutes which could be avoided."

For most people, exercise not only benefits the heart, it is essential for general good health. However, a small number of people develop abnormalities in their heart muscle which can suddenly, during exercise, stop it beating properly and interrupt the flow of blood around the body.

Why an underlying condition suddenly proves catastrophic in this way in patients who have exercised many times before cannot always be explained by doctors. However, one way to discover who is at risk is to screen young sportsmen and women for heart abnormalities using an electrocardiogram - a service which is already offered in Italy.

Miss Dickinson, who has a degree in sports medicine, discussed this very issue at university. "I remember having a lecture when they were explaining about young people who died playing sport and how tragic it was, but you do not understand it until it happens to you," she said.

"At the time we were considering the public health aspect of implementing screening for young people."

Professor Stewart Hillis, vice-chairman of the Uefa medical committee and Professor of cardiovascular and exercise medicine at Glasgow University, has pressed the Scottish Parliament to consider screening. "If you identify the underlying condition you can take steps to avoid the problems," he said.

"It is not as if we do not have treatments if you find conditions." Sufferers can also choose to pursue less rigorous sports.

CRY, a charity formed to raise awareness of sudden cardiac death among the young, has set up heart check clinics in England that offer appointments and follow-up to young people for £35. Alison Cox, chief executive of CRY, said if there is interest the charity is keen to establish a service north of the Border.

But governments tend to feel that the cost of routinely checking young athletes on the NHS is too high, considering the small number of problems this is likely to detect.

The alternative, say experts, is to provide more defibrillation equipment and training. Dr James Robson, head of medical services with Scottish Rugby Union and doctor on the last four British Lions tours, said: "If you have a sports centre with a number of pitches attached to it, you should at very least have a defibrillator attached to it. If someone collapses on the field there are many health professionals participating in sport and if they were there and had the training you could defibrillate."

Medical back-up is said to be in place at sporting occasions that attract large crowds and international fixtures for youth sides. However, walk around many communities on a Saturday and there are games without sophisticated first aid on site.

Dr Brian Walker, head of sports medicine at the Scottish Institute of Sport, which supports Scotland's best athletes, said: "I do not think there are a lot of grounds that would have defibrillators. I do not think there is much penetration beyond the very highest levels."

This is where Mr Hodgkinson's death could just make a difference. John Hodgkinson, Craig's father, has noticed an increasing availability of defibrillators in sport overseas and cannot help but ask why they are not on stand-by in more venues in the UK.

Both he and Miss Dickinson would like to see the Scottish Executive step in and provide more equipment. In the meantime, it is hoped the memorial game will pay for the Navy team to have a machine along with a number of sport and rugby clubs in the West of Scotland.

"They are maybe lying there and never used," said Mr Hodgkinson. "But if we save one person, I think it is worth the money."

12:01am today



By HELEN PUTTICK, Health Correspondent

This article was posted on 17-May-2007, 13:03 by Hugh Barrow.