A community heart testing programme has got under way.

A group of 43 young sportsmen and women took part in the first ECG testing session with equipment bought by supporters of Cardiac Risk in the Young.

Now an appeal has gone out to other sports groups in the district to come forward for testing.

The testing follows an unprecedented fundraising campaign in the area.

More than £50,000 was raised in two years in memory of Frinton teenager Andy Gard, a keen sportsman who died suddenly from cardiac arrest just before his 18th birthday.

Taking part in the first session were youngsters of 13 and upwards, mainly members of Frinton Youth Football Club and Frinton Tennis Club.

Senior cardiographer Angie Brown and cardiographer Loretta Vant, of Colchester General Hospital, took the ECG readings, which will now be sent to St George's Hospital, London.

There they will be read and diagnosed by cardiologists and individuals and GPs notified in about three weeks.

Andy's mother Caroline, of Glebe Way, Frinton, who spearheaded the campaign and was at the testing session at Tendring Technology College, said: "It went very well."

An invited group of more than 40 individual young people underwent ECG and ECHO testing by experts last year, but this is the first time group testing within the community has taken place as proposed, she added.

Any groups interested in being tested should ring 01255 673598.

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