Tragic death prompted ongoing fundraising effort in Mount Temple

A tragedy in the Mount Temple area three years ago inspired a fundraising effort which has generated thousands of euro for a charity dealing with sudden cardiac death. The death on December 19, 2006, of local man Padraig Hanevy, a 41-year-old father of four, was met with shock and great sadness in the Mount Temple community and beyond. "We had four kids and our youngest was just 16 weeks old when it happened," Padraig's wife, Olivia Hanevy, told the Westmeath Independent this week. "That night Padraig just got a sudden pain in his wrist. Less than 20 minutes later he went into a fit and he was dead." The post-mortem showed Padraig had died from an arrhythmia - a genetic condition but one which had not manifested itself outwardly in any way. "If he had symptoms, he could have had a pacemaker fitted, and that would have kicked in when his heart stopped," said Olivia. "It's something people should be aware of and they should know it's not necessarily people who are overweight who can be affected. Padraig was six foot two and had no weight problems. He was health conscious and watched his weight." The sudden death of seemingly healthy young men attracted national attention in recent years following the passing of Tyrone footballer Cormac McAnallen and, more recently, pop singer Stephen Gately. Discussing Padraig's death, local resident Joe Browne said: "We wouldn't have ever thought something like that would affect our community but unfortunately it did." Joe and a group of other triathlon participants from Mount Temple took part in the triAthlone event for charity in each of the last three years. In their first year, their efforts generated funds for St Hildas Services in Athlone, but during the last two years the income has been donated to CRY (Cardiac Risk in the Young) a charity formed by Michael and Marie Green, who lost their son at 15. "After the Padraig died there was the sad death of Tony Parker, a student at Moate Community School, and because of these cases we felt it was a very relevant to charity to raise money for," said Joe. In 2008, the local triathlon group raised over €2,000, while this year almost €5,000 was generated for the charity as a result of their efforts. "Next year will be the big one. With the European Triathlon Championships coming to Athlone, we're aiming to raise €10,000 and looks like we'll have about 50 people taking part," he said. Olivia also organised a group of family, friends and colleagues to participate in the Women's Mini Marathon to raise money for CRY during each of the last two years. Joe said he hoped the local efforts would raise awareness of the work done by the CRY. When asked if participants had been screened to determine if they might be at risk, he said it was an individual decision for people to make but that, personally, he had been screened. One of CRY's achievements was the opening last year of a screening centre for cardiac risk in young people in Tallaght. The Centre for Cardiovascular Risk in Younger Persons (CRYP) in Tallaght aims to screen a minimum of 1,600 young patients annually, and was officially opened by former Taoiseach Garret FitzGerald in November 2008. Many of Olivia's family members have been screened at the clinic and her children - who are now aged between three and 18 - are regularly monitored there. She praised the "great response from the community" in its fundraising efforts for CRY, which she said did important work in supporting the bereaved and raising awareness of issues surrounding cardiac risk in young people. For more information on CRY see its website at: www.cry.ie