Banbury woman calls for routine medical screening after husband's tragic death at just 32

Laura Burr, who lives in Parklands, has joined another woman widowed far too early, in a campaign for screening to find the estimated 400,000 people who have silent, undiagnosed conditions that can prove fatal without treatment.

Mrs Burr’s husband Edward died just six months after their wedding in April 2024. He was a Hanwell Fields primary school teacher for ten years, who then worked at Specsavers.

"Less than three weeks after our wedding, Edward was in hospital with pneumonia. He was in hospital for seven weeks and during that time we found out he had undiagnosed dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) and was in active heart failure,” she said.

“In July after three weeks at home on medication we went back to the hospital as he had deteriorated. He was then sent to Harefield Hospital in London where he was on life support waiting for a heart transplant.

"It didn’t come in time and two days after my birthday - 186 days after we exchanged our vows - I was holding his hand as he passed away.”

“Edward was kind, accepting, patient and non-judgmental. He was a peacemaker, a joker, he was a swiftie, a friend, a godparent, the biggest Lord of the Rings fan I’d ever met, he was an uncle, a best friend to more people than I thought possible; he was a gamer, a thinker, a storyteller, a partner and a husband,” says Mrs Burr in her Change.org petition.

“He was a light in so many people’s dark times and mysteriously always at the right times.”

Mrs Burr and Burnley woman Gabriella Evans created the petition in a bid to end premature death by undiagnosed, but treatable, conditions. Gabby’s husband Tom also passed away prematurely from hypertension and undiagnosed coronary heart disease caused by the severe high blood pressure which had not been detected.

The two women discovered each other through TikTok and decided to campaign for nationwide screening to prevent unnecessary deaths from these undiagnosed conditions. It is understood eight million people are living with undetected, unmedicated high blood pressure and 400,000 with undiagnosed heart failure.

Both women believe if health checks were mandatory and their husbands had gone for a health MOT between 25 - 30-years-old, their medical conditions would have been flagged and they would still be here.

DCM is a disease of the heart muscle which enlarges the heart’s main pumping chamber, causing the muscle wall to stretch and become thin (dilate). This makes it harder for the heart to pump blood out of the heart and around the body.

People living with DCM might not notice any symptoms at first as it develops over time. The most common symptoms include tiredness, chest pain, shortness of breath, swelling of the feet, ankles, stomach and lower back and palpitations (feeling your heartbeat pounding or beating more quickly than usual).

Most people are not aware they have high blood pressure. It is often diagnosed after having a heart attack, stroke or regular checkups. Rare symptoms include blurred vision, headaches, nosebleeds and chest pains.