Postman Daniel Hughes, 28, from Stoke-on-Trent, died in March 2015

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Mother who lost her sport-mad son to sudden adult death syndrome at 28 reveals how she tried in vain to revive him - and says 'no parent should have to go through what I did that morning'

Postman Daniel Hughes, 28, from Stoke-on-Trent, died in March 2015
His mother Sue, 57, found her son lying unresponsive in his bed
Post-mortem revealed he had suffered sudden arrhythmic death syndrome
Heartbroken parents have raised money to provide heart screenings in his name
The family has now funded nearly 1,000 screenings for young people

A heartbroken mother who lost her sporty son to sudden adult death syndrome at 28 has recalled the moment she found him lying unresponsive in his bed.

Sue Hughes, 57, from Stoke-on-Trent, had gone to check on postman Daniel when he failed to get up for his morning round, and found her son turning purple.

The CPR-trained secretary tried desperately to revive Daniel while waiting for paramedics, but to no avail.

Since his death in March 2015, Daniel's family has raised £153,000 in his memory, and funded heart screenings for almost 1,000 young people in Staffordshire, because, Sue said: 'No mother should ever have to go through what I did that morning.'

Sue Hughes, seen with husband Dave, their son Daniel and daughter Kimberley before Daniel's death in March 2015, says 'no mother should go through' what she endured that fateful day +5
Sue Hughes, seen with husband Dave, their son Daniel and daughter Kimberley before Daniel's death in March 2015, says 'no mother should go through' what she endured that fateful day

Tireless campaigner Sue and her husband David, a Rolls-Royce project engineer, hope the screenings will raise awareness of the danger of undiagnosed heart defects in young people, and describe their son's legacy as 'a silver lining in a really dark cloud'.

'Finding Daniel unresponsive like that was a feeling I will never, ever forget,' said Sue, who also has a daughter, Kimberley, a teaching assistant.

The night before his death on March 19, 2015, the family enjoyed a meal together, before Daniel went to bed at around 9.30pm.

Dave got up for work at 4.30am the next day, with Sue, a former secretary, rising at 6.30am. At 7am, concerned that she had not heard Daniel getting ready, Sue knocked on his door, going in when he failed to reply, only to be met by a sight she will never forget.

Sue recalled: "I knew something was wrong as soon as I opened his bedroom door.

'I kept on saying, "Dan, Dan," and tried to wake him, but it wasn't to be.'

Her son had started to turn purple, but was lying in a 'perfect' sleeping position and, CPR trained, she tried to revive him while waiting for paramedics to arrive - but it was too late.

Dave was at work when he received the phone call every parent dreads.

'Sue asked me to come home and when I asked why, she said our son had died,' he said.

'You hear words like "heartbreaking", "devastating" and "grief-stricken", but I honestly struggle to put into words how it felt, because it was so horrendous.'


A post-mortem after Daniel's death showed he had suffered sudden arrhythmic death syndrome (SADS) – also known as sudden adult death syndrome – which he had no idea he had.

The condition - responsible for 12 UK deaths in under 35s, not previously diagnosed with heart conditions, every week - causes cardiac arrest, by bringing on a ventricular arrhythmia, or disturbance in the heart's rhythm, according to the charity Cardiac Risk in the Young (CRY).

Sue said: 'All the work that we do in Daniel's memory is to prevent this happening again. Our goal is to leave a legacy in his name, so that the young people of our local community and beyond have access to heart screenings and are aware of the dangers of undiagnosed heart defects.

'Our work is our way of turning a devastating event into something positive for other people.' Sue and Dave, who have now raised £153,000 for the heart screenings, remember their son as a fit and healthy young man, who loved sport and played football for four local teams - even captaining a match a week before he died.

Dave, 59, said: 'Daniel was a really nice, well-mannered, decent lad. He loved to have a laugh and was always the life and soul of the party.


Dave, 59, said: 'Daniel was a really nice, well-mannered, decent lad. He loved to have a laugh and was always the life and soul of the party.

'He loved his life, and everyone he met, from friends to people he was delivering mail to, thought he was a great lad.'

After Daniel's funeral on April 7, 2015, the family received £300 in donations, which helped them to focus on how they could create a fitting legacy for him.

Dave said: 'We were trying to decide what we would do with the money, when we heard about the charity Cardiac Risk in the Young (CRY) - which works to reduce the frequency of young sudden cardiac death.

'We set up a page raising funds to go towards heart screenings and we have never looked back.'

To date, the family has funded 996 young people's heart screenings in the Stoke and East Midlands areas.

Dave said: 'We lost our son in such a sudden and cruel way, but there aren't many people who can say they have saved a life.

To be able to say your son has potentially saved 1,000 people, is really special and we are immensely proud of that. 'We already know of two people who could have died if it hadn't had been for our screenings.

'It's a silver lining in a really dark cloud.'

Stoke City Football Club sponsor Top Eleven, an independent games studio, donated its shirt sleeve sponsorship to Cardiac Risk in the Young during last a recent home game against Tottenham Hotspur.