大象传媒

Stephanie Hunter lost her husband Howard, 32, when he collapsed during rugby training, playing for amateur side 鈥楨sher鈥� in Surrey, coincidentally alongside 大象传媒 Sport presenter John Inverdale.

Eleven years later in 2004, Stephanie鈥檚 son Sebastian, a budding rugby player himself, died aged 15 from the same condition as his father.

Stephanie remembers the evening in October 1993 when the heart condition Arrhythmogenic Right Ventricular Cardiomyopathy鈥� (ARVC) ended the lives of her husband and son.

鈥淪ebastian went off to play rugby and I got a phone call from a mother of a friend of Sebastian鈥檚 and it was exactly the same thing, I knew Sebastian was going to die鈥� said Stephanie.

鈥淚t was obviously a genetic thing [..] he died in the same way as Howard.鈥�

鈥淚t鈥檚 not meant to happen, your children are meant to outlive you aren鈥檛 they?鈥�

鈥淲e鈥檝e got this horrible void to live with, he should be with u.s鈥�

ARVC is a heart muscle disease that can cause life-threatening heart rhythm abnormalities and, in some cases, significant 鈥榳eakening鈥� of the right side of the heart. More information relating to the disease can be found at http://www.c-r-y.org.uk/arvc/

This clip is from 5 live Sport on Tuesday 19 May 2015.

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