Get a heart test says Gemma after losing her father
STRICTLY star Gemma Atkinson has urged people to have heart check-ups after revealing her devastation at losing her father.
The ex-Hollyoaks actress, 36, was 17 years old when dad David, 52, suffered a heart attack at work. He was taken to hospital but died three days later after a second attack.
Gemma and ex-footballer Fabrice Muamba, who had a cardiac arrest on the pitch in 2012, were tested at Venturi Cardiology heart clinic in Warrington, Cheshire.
Gym buff Gemma, who is engaged to Strictly’s Gorka Marquez, said: “It was a huge shock for my older sister Nina and I to lose our dad when he was so young.
“He was fit and healthy and strong and he was the last person you’d expect to collapse with a heart problem. “Doctors said that they thought the cause was stress related. At the time, he was very fit and healthy, didn’t smoke and drank occasionally.
“He managed a company and was working a lot and travelling all over the world.”
Explaining how her father had warning signs before disaster struck, mum-of-one Gemma said: “He’d had chest pains he thought was indigestion, so took heartburn tablets and carried on.
“Looking back now, and thanks to my work with the British Heart Foundation, these were classic warning signs that something was wrong.
“If he had gone to the doctors perhaps he could have been investigated and they could have helped him in time.” The Manchester United fan also described her shock at Christian Eriksen’s collapse at Euro 2020.
She said: “What happened with Eriksen was a wake-up call for everybody, because you do not get someone fitter than a pro-footballer. People assume if you look fit and well on the outside then everything is functioning OK on the inside. But that isn’t always the case.” Fabrice, 33, said: “It is important to have medical checks.” More than 100,000 people in Britain die of a sudden cardiac arrest every year.