Young people are being urged to undergo a heart screening event organised by Ashby Round Table in memory of a "fit and healthy" amateur footballer who died from Sudden Adult Death Syndrome.
Daniel Hughes was just 28 when he died from an undiagnosed heart condition in the early hours of March 19, 2015.
When he failed to get up for work the next day, his mother, Sue, knocked on his door to see if he had overslept. She immediately called 999 and performed CPR on him until paramedics arrived but the doctor quickly confirmed that Dan had died.
Dan was described as a "fit and healthy" young man who played football every Saturday and Sunday for Alsagers Bank FC. His family had no idea that something was wrong and a post-mortem examination showed that Daniel had died from Sudden Adult Death Syndrome.
His father Dave Hughes is a member of the Round Table in North Staffordshire with friends at the Ashby branch, inspiring the group to raise money and awareness for Cardiac Risk in the Young.
Mr Hughes said: "We will never know if heart screening would have saved our precious son's life but we never want another family to go through what we went through.
"There are no words to describe the emptiness and heartache we feel every day; all we can do is work hard to ensure that Dan's legacy lives on for years to come and that he continues to make a difference to people's lives now as he did when he was with us."
The family have since set up their own charity in Daniel's name, called the Dan Hughes Memorial Heart Screening Fund, in order to arrange more screening events.
After fund-raising for the past year, Ashby Round Table raised enough money to fund their own screening event, which can cost between £3,500 and £5,000. It will take place at Castle Medical Group, Burton Road, Ashby on January 27.
James Burrows from Ashby Round Table said: "We're really looking forward to the heart screening event next weekend.
"We have filled all 100 spaces for the event, meaning we will have as many people as we can accommodate having heart screening tests.
"Cardiac Risk in the Young does some great work which is so important and could save young people's lives.
"We decided we wanted to support this cause as one of the guys, Dave, lost his son in 2015, which is just heartbreaking to think about.
"We all think it's a great opportunity to give back to the community and it could even save someone's life. If it saves just one person's life, all the hard work is worth it."
Cardiac Risk in the Young provides screening for people between the ages of 14 and 35 in the hope of detecting any undiagnosed heart problems. The organisation promotes and develops heart screening programmes for young people and also publishes medical information for the general public.
The charity says every week in the UK, at least 12 young people die of undiagnosed heart conditions.
The screening events are run by a mobile screening team of medically qualified personnel, including a doctor, echo technician, one or more ECG technicians, an administrator and a screening manager.
Any person who has an abnormal ECG result will be invited to have a full cardiac evaluation at a later date.
Success stories of heart screening
In September 2016, the first heart screening days were organised by the Dan Hughes Memorial Heart Screening Fund in Dan's hometown of Bignall End, near Newcastle under Lyme.
The screening was conducted by Cardiac Risk in the Young and saw two young people discover they had heart problems.
Lincoln Mills was diagnosed with a hole in his heart, a condition he knew nothing about. He was advised that he couldn't carry on pursuing his hobby of deep sea diving.
His mum, Julie said: "My son who went for the ultrasound was found to have a PFO and has been advised never to go deep sea diving again.
"You may well have saved his life as he has dived with sharks before and fully intended to go diving again. But with the information provided to him he certainly won't be doing so again."
Meanwhile, 17-year-old Lucy Smith also went to the screening and technicians advised her to go straight to the local A and E department. She spent 11 days in hospital and had a pace maker fitted.
Her mum Tracey said: "Your fund-raising probably saved Lucy's life. No words at all can ever say how grateful we will always be to you."
