Students of Limerick school raise funds and awareness for SADS

A LIMERICK school has raised over €3000 in honour of one of their former students who passed away from Sudden Arrhythmic Death Syndrome (SADS).

Castletroy College held a “colours day” in aid of Heart House in memory of a former student of the college, Kevin Hayes, who passed away in 2017 at the tender age of 26. Raising a total of €3161, a cheque was then presented to Kevin’s father, James Hayes.

Mr Hayes says there is a lack of awareness regarding SADS, which is responsible for the deaths of approximately 100 young Irish people each year.

“The majority of people that succumb to SADS are between the ages of 15 and 35,” Mr Hayes said, pointing out the importance of raising awareness in schools.

Mr Hayes said prior to his son’s passing, he was relatively unaware of the prevalence of SADS himself and described the trauma he experienced due to Kevin’s death.

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“Kevin was the healthiest in the family. He actually liked to cook healthy food for himself, and would break my heart telling me how much salt and sugar was in my food,” Mr Hayes said.

“His death was something that was really hard to take, bordering on unacceptable. You're just not expecting to bury your own child, you're really not expecting to outlive them,” he added.

Mr Hayes said that the money raised will be of great benefit to Heart House, which, with the support of the Mater Foundation, is one of a number of organisations in this country that work at the forefront of SADS support and research.

Principal Padraig Flanagan, who was assisted by teacher Declan English in organising the fundraiser, said it was for a worthwhile cause. We have over 1,300 students here in the school and it would be heart-breaking to see any of them becoming part of the sad SADS statistic,” Mr Flanagan said.

“All of our teaching staff helped to promote this event and of all those that we have run so far this was the best supported. We are delighted to have helped out with such a worthy cause,” Mr English added.