Latest news with #GabbyEvans
BBC News
4 days ago
- General
- BBC News
'Our honeymoon money paid for my husband's funeral'
Two young widows who lost their husbands to heart conditions have launched a podcast about their Burr, 31, from Banbury, Oxfordshire, and Gabby Evans, 32, from Burnley, have previously campaigned to lower the age of NHS health Burr, whose husband died six months after their wedding, said the weekly podcast would deal with "raw emotions and real lives".She told the first episode: "I literally had to spend the money me and Ed had earmarked for a honeymoon on his funeral." Her husband fell ill on the day after their wedding in April 2024 and was diagnosed shortly afterwards with dilated cardiomyopathy, which inhibits blood died in October at the age of 32 while waiting for a heart Evans' partner Tom Brakewell, who was 34, died suddenly at home in January 2025 with an undiagnosed heart widows, who have never met in person, previously joined forces to launch an online petition to lower the age - currently 40 - at which the NHS starts to invite patients for full health screening. Mrs Burr said: "I fully believe if health checks were mandatory and Edward had gone for a health MOT between 25 and 30 his heart issue would have been flagged and he would still be here."The pair released The Podcast That Shouldn't Exist on the first episode, Mrs Burr told how she walked down the aisle at the wedding and the funeral to the same music, from her husband's favourite film series Lord Of The Evans described her fantasy that her partner would leap up and "jump scare" her at the chapel of rest. The pair said the podcast was "a space we never asked to create about a club no-one wants to join".In response to the widows' campaign, the Department of Health and Social Care said: "Our deepest sympathies are with the families of Edward and Tom."The NHS's life-saving health checks are targeted towards those at higher risk, preventing around 500 heart attacks and strokes every year and stopping people developing a range of diseases."To increase availability and uptake of the checks, we are developing a new online service that eligible people can use at home to understand their risk of cardiovascular disease and diabetes." You can follow BBC Oxfordshire on Facebook, X (Twitter), or Instagram.
BBC News
15-05-2025
- Health
- BBC News
Burnley: Widow calls for health checks for younger people
A woman whose partner died from an undiagnosed heart condition at the age of 34 has called for mandatory health checks for young people. Gabby Evans, 32, from Burnley, said her partner Tom Brakewell died in January but she believed his death might have been prevented if he had had a health has joined forces with another young widow to campaign for NHS health checks for those aged 25 to 35 and said if their campaign could get "just one person to check their health, it's worth it".A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said NHS health checks were currently "targeted towards those at higher risk". Ms Evans met Laura Burr, 31, from Banbury, Oxfordshire, when both used TikTok as a platform to document their Burr's husband Edward Burr also died from an undiagnosed heart condition at the age of 32 in October the pair have never met in person, Ms Evans, a registered nurse, and Mrs Burr, who works for Scottish Power, now speak to each other every day to "check in" and navigate their grief have launched a petition to call for the mandatory NHS health checks to detect underlying conditions, and to ensure "no-one would have to go through what we've gone through"."We don't want Tom and Edward to have died for no reason, their deaths have to count for something and maybe this petition is why," Mrs Burr said: "We wanted to spend the rest of our lives with them, they were going to do wonderful things in the world and now they're not able to."Ms Evans said loved ones have since told her that her partner was planning to propose in March 2025, but he "never got the chance". Ms Evans said her partner started experiencing headaches in August 2024, which the couple put down to him spending time in front of visiting a doctor, it was found he had high blood pressure and he was prescribed medication to help – but he then started having chest pains in January 2025."He was admitted to hospital for a week on January 18 because they thought he'd had a heart attack, but it was the high blood pressure causing similar symptoms," she said."They got his blood pressure down and he was discharged – he was fine and he said he felt okay." 'Full tests' Three days later, Ms Evans said she woke up in the morning and found he had "stopped breathing"."I turned on the light and just knew instantly something wasn't right, I started doing chest compressions before the paramedics came," she said."They worked on him for about 45 minutes before they made the decision they couldn't carry on and Tom wasn't with us."I was with him when they pronounced him."Mr Brakewell had suffered a cardiac arrest, and he died on 28 January 2025 – with the cause later determined to be high hypertension and coronary heart disease."His heart was damaged and he'd had it for a long period – if he had full tests earlier it may have been picked up sooner," Ms Evans said.A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: "Our deepest sympathies are with the families of Edward and Tom".A new online service that eligible people could use at home to understand their risk of cardiovascular disease and diabetes was being developed "to increase availability and uptake of the checks", they added. Listen to the best of BBC Radio Lancashire on Sounds and follow BBC Lancashire on Facebook, X and Instagram. You can also send story ideas via Whatsapp to 0808 100 2230.
