'My daughter went swimming and never returned... I don't want it to happen to another parent'

A mum has shared her story to raise awareness about heart health after her daughter died suddenly aged just 29. Laura West was swimming at Lancaster University when she had a heart attack and passed away.

Her mum, Gilly Atkinson, said she was left in 'shock' and 'denial' in the weeks after her daughter's tragic death because it happened so fast.

Laura's post-mortem showed she had a rare heart condition called ARVC, or arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy, which can weaken the heart's structure. As a genetic condition, Gilly's other children and herself were tested for the gene - which yielded some unexpected results, reports LancsLive.

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53-year-old Gilly explained: "My youngest son carries the gene, but doesn't actually have it active and I have it. So I now have an internal ICD, which is an internal defibrillator and there's other things going on as well, so my lifespan's only short with having ARVC. So I've got to do as much as I can with raising awareness of Sudden Adult Death Syndrome.

"I am used to what might happen to me in the future. I've not got a normal extended lifespan like everybody else, but I know what I'm doing is in Laura's memory and saving other people's lives as much as possible."

Gilly from Poulton has been working hard to raise money for the British Heart Foundation in Laura's name, and then started raising funds for local defibrillators, which can cost over £1,000 each.

She teamed up with Helen Crane and Gillian Gallagher, two of the founders of 'Wyre and Fylde Community Defibrillators Fundraising'. So far, they've managed to install 48 defibrillators around the area.

Thanks to their efforts, they've also saved 12