Free Republic

The friends and family of a Hastings man who died suddenly, aged only 23, are running in this year’s Hastings Half-Marathon to raise awareness of a heart condition.Dan Parris died on February 22, 2021 due to Sudden Arrhythmic Death Syndrome (SADS), his older brother Matt said. He had never been diagnosed with any heart conditions and seemed to be in perfect health, his family said. He left his wife-to-be Holly and baby daughter Olivia. Matt said: “To date, Dan’s exact cause of death is still unknown but has been attributed to SADS. This year his friends and I are running...

The stories make headlines and strike fear in the hearts of runners who read them. Athletes—often young and seemingly healthy—die suddenly at races, during training runs, or in the off hours between them. Often, the cause is sudden cardiac arrest, which occurs when the heart stops beating. It’s a short-circuit in the electrical impulses that govern your heartbeat. That’s different from a heart attack, typically caused by a blood clot physically blocking blood flow through an artery, though the two can be linked. According to the latest American Heart Association statistics, sudden cardiac arrest isn’t common among runners—about 0.54 per...