Frost family’s fundraising could help cut heart disease deaths

Thousands more patients at risk of deadly inherited heart conditions are to be screened each year following the roll-out of a £1.5 million genetic testing service by the family of the late Sir David Frost and the British Heart Foundation (BHF).

The Miles Frost Fund was created in memory of Sir David’s eldest son, Miles, who died of a hidden heart condition, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), in 2015 aged 31.

Broadcaster Sir David also died from a heart attack at the age of 74 in 2013.

The fund, which makes genetic testing for the condition more easily available, has hit its £1.5m fundraising target just two years after it launched.

The BHF estimates up to 120,000 people across the UK could be living with HCM, while 600,000 could be carrying a similar faulty gene that puts them at high risk of having a cardiac arrest or heart attack.

The money raised is already helping to fund six specialist inherited cardiac condition clinics across the UK, with additional centres due to receive funding in March.

A total of 14 new Miles Frost Fund/BHF specialist cardiac genetic nurses, genetic counsellors and family history coordinators have also been appointed, seeing an additional 800 people each year.

The Frost family, including wife Lady Carina and younger sons Wilfred and George, only discovered his post-mortem examination had shown he had HCM four months after Miles Frost’s death.

The family said: “We are proud to have reached the £1.5 million target that we set. We hope that by launching these services, many lives will be saved in Miles’ memory.”

Picture: PA. Sir David Frost with his eldest son Miles Frost. Both were victims of heart attacks.