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A cyclist who lost his mother and brother to heart problems is taking part in a study to understand how athletes are affected by heart scarring.
Gethin Davies-Jones, 55, from Nelson, is the same age as his brother Glyn Jones was when he died in 2019.
Glyn collapsed suddenly during the Tenby Long Course Weekend and later died in hospital.
It turned out that Glyn had been living with undiagnosed coronary heart disease.
Gethin’s mother, Helen Jones, was in her late 40s when she died from a sudden cardiac arrest.
The study £320,000 study, which is being carried out by the University of Leeds with funding from the British Heart Foundation, will see 106 athletes aged 50 and above have a small monitor implanted into their chests.
The monitors, which will be fitted for two years, will monitor heartbeats to determine the impact endurance sport has on heart health.
Father-of-one Gethin said: “Losing family members when they were of a young age had a huge impact on me. There are so many conversations and memories I now won’t be able to have with my brother and mum, and their experiences have put my own mortality sharply into focus.
“Cycling is a huge passion of mine – I enjoy competitive time trialling and I’m a beginner triathlete. The sport is great for my mental health and since taking it up I’ve been able to lose 12kg in weight. However, when I get out on my bike, there is always the worry in the back of my mind that what happened to my brother could happen to me.
“That’s why my interest in this study is so immediate and deep, as it will help me understand more about my own heart health.
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The monitor will allow researchers to assess the participants’ heart rates during and after exercise more accurately than previous testing methods.
The athletes will also undergo MRI scans to look for signs of heart scarring.
The research aims to determine if heart scarring in athletes is linked to abnormal heart rhythms and could help inform future research into ways to avoid heart damage in endurance athletes.
In a previous study into male athletes over the age of 50, it was found around half of the participants had developed scarring on their hearts.
Dr Peter Swoboda, senior lecturer at Leeds University, said: “With the implantable monitors set to detect billions of heartbeats, we are going to learn so much through this study, including whether heart scarring is linked to irregular heart rhythms. This could help identify who is most at risk and some of the lessons we learn could be applied to younger athletes, too.”
Dr Subreena Simrick, Senior Research Advisor at the British Heart Foundation, said the research could “pave the way for further research into potential treatments and preventions, allowing athletes of all ages to participate in sport as safely as possible”.
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