A doctor whose husband died suddenly eight weeks after their wedding day has vowed to use her tragedy to help others.

Jenny Harrop, 33, married Dave, 31, from Poynton, in September three years ago in their dream wedding at Hollin Hall in Bollington.

But just two months later, as he played his first match for Lymm Rugby Club, his heart stopped.

For 31 years Dave had been living with an undetected heart condition.

Jenny, who had moved from London with Dave so they could be closer to his family in Poynton, still struggles to talk about the day her life changed forever.

She said: "He was the perfect man, I was the happiest in those weeks after our wedding than I had ever been.

"I left for work at seven that Saturday morning and kissed Dave goodbye as normal.

"That day he was playing rugby for Lymm rugby club, it was his first match.

"He was just standing there and some of the players heard a thud. He had collapsed."

Jenny had just qualified as a doctor and was working at Preston Royal Infirmary. "I got a phone call from a player. He said not to worry, he was okay, that they were doing CPR," she said. But as a doctor, Jenny knew it was serious.

"The minute I heard they were intubating him I panicked, I knew it was bad, he wasn’t breathing for himself."

Jenny rushed to Arrowe Park Hospital in the Wirral.

"When I arrived they took me into a side room. I was a doctor, I knew immediately what that meant. I had taken families into those rooms myself."

The ambulance had got Dave to hospital in seven minutes but he was declared dead on arrival.

"I wanted to see him and I was glad I did. At least he had died doing what he loved. When we got the post mortem report it seemed amazing Dave had lived to 31."

He had a progressive but undetected heart condition called arrhythmogenic left ventricular cardiomyopathy – a scar slowly growing on his heart.

"The same people who’d been there for our happiest day were now there for Dave’s funeral. It broke their hearts."

Dave’s family – parents Marjorie and Michael and sisters Charlotte and Elizabeth – were devastated but rallied round to support Jenny.

She had met Dave, who grew up on Brookside Avenue, Poynton, five years earlier in a London pub – and it was love at first sight.

He had just started working for the Atomic Energy Authority. After her own experience, Jenny found she couldn’t work with patients any more.

She now works for the NHS in a management role in Manchester – and as she looks to the future she’s determined to prevent other young deaths like Dave’s. Every year, she raises more than £8,000 for a special screening roadshow which can detect signs of heart disease.

She has climbed Mount Kilimanjaro and run the London Marathon for Cardiac Risk in the Young (CRY), the charity which funds cardiac research.

"One day I might return to being a doctor but I'm not ready yet. For now I want to try and make sure people are getting the testing they need."

Every week, 12 people in this country suffer sudden cardiac death.


* Jenny is backing the charity Cardiac Risk in the campaign ‘test my heart’, which offers the only free heart tests to people aged 14 to 35.

A screening in Dave’s memory is being held on Saturday, October 9, and Sunday, October 10, at the Tesco Express Store, The Paddock , Handforth.

Go to www.testmyheart.org to book your free appointment.

The mobile unit consists of three rooms where Philips ECG and ECHO equipment will be used to test people. A doctor with a team of cardiac physicians will be present with each screening taking no more than 30 minutes.