A total of 363 people turned up for a heart screening last week, with three being identified as having problems.

Craig’s Heartstrong Foundation, a charity set up by the Lunt family in memory of 25-year-old Craig who died in 2005 due to an undiagnosed heart defect, held the free appointments with Cardiac Risk in the Young (CRY) undertaking the screenings for 14 to 35-year-olds.

Paul Healey, chairman of the charity, said: ‘That’s a fantastic amount to start us back up again after two years away.

‘We usually have about 400 in when we do them but this isn’t because people didn’t turn up, this was just that due to Covid CRY didn’t book in as many as they would’ve done in previous years.

‘Of those 363, three were found with problems that now need to be referred to their doctor. They can go about getting some kind of treatment now.

‘As a charity, we are always on hand to help with any of that as well. The data protection measures that are in place now don’t allow us to know who those three people are so if they don’t come to us we can’t help them.

‘The most frightening thing about this is being told you’ve got a problem, you then have to wait six weeks to get your letter from CRY and then you get a letter from your doctor to say you’ve got an appointment in six to seven months.

‘If they contact us, we will pay for them to go private for their first consultation and then they can move on from there.’

The screenings took place at the weekend beginning April 23 at Noble’s Hospital.

‘I would like to openly thank Manx Care for allowing us to use the suite,’ Mr Healey said.

He noted that many younger people turned up, adding: ‘There was a wide range of people but it did seem there were a lot of youngsters.

‘I think because we haven’t had it for two years, that’s two years’ worth of people who have turned 14 which I think is about 3,000 people. The fact we haven’t had a screening in two years is has probably panicked parents a little bit.

‘It was also a record low number of no-shows which shows how important people feel these are.’

An appointment on average takes about 20 minutes from check-in to the end of the screening.

Another set of screenings is booked in for September and Mr Healey advised people to keep an eye out for the dates on social media.