My name is Maddy and I had my heart screened at Homewood school in April 2018.
Before losing Ben, I had no idea about this terrible condition within your body and it made us aware about heart screening, which my parents and I decided to book me in for. This was made to be a quick and easy process through the CRY website and didn’t take much time to do at all. They then emailed through a medical questionnaire for us to fill in and for me to bring along on the screening day.
When I arrived at the school, where the screening was being held, I felt slightly anxious about the process as I didn’t know what to expect, however, upon entering I was greeted by friendly volunteers of the CRY charity who signed me in and took me and my mum through to the waiting area; this immediately put me at ease and I waited for a nurse to come and take me through to be screened. When she did so, she led me through to a separate room containing around 4 curtained off cubicles. I laid on the bed and she attached many wires to my chest, arms and legs using a machine connected to them. It didn’t take very long at all and it really was nothing to worry about, just as she had assured me.
Next, my mum and I were taken through to another waiting room where we were to meet with the doctor and he would look at my results. This was a quick experience for me as my heart and the results were completely normal, however I was one of the lucky ones, a few people that day were sent on to have further tests on their hearts. I think this is such an amazing thing to do as out of something so incredibly sad, something positive has come out of it and hopefully Team Ben Hammond can help save lives.