In response to the sudden death of Clarissa Nicholls, a 20-year-old undergraduate at the University of Cambridge, students are now being offered heart screenings to detect potential undiagnosed heart conditions. Clarissa passed away in May 2023 from arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy (ACM) while hiking in France, a condition that had gone undiagnosed despite previous testing.
Clarissa’s friends have launched Clarissa’s Campaign for Cambridge Hearts, successfully raising over £55,000 to fund electrocardiogram (ECG) screenings for hundreds of Cambridge students. The initiative aims to provide comprehensive heart screenings, in hopes of preventing further tragedies.
Clarissa, a student of French and Italian at Trinity Hall, was on a study placement in Paris at the time of her death. Her family, devastated by the loss, quickly turned their grief into action by raising awareness about heart conditions in young people and advocating for early screenings. Her mother, Hilary Nicholls, shared that Clarissa had undergone an ECG, but the results were not interpreted correctly, a missed opportunity that could have saved her life.
Friends Jessica Reeve and Izzy Winter, who started the campaign, initially set out to raise £7,000 to fund one day of ECG screenings for about 100 young people. The overwhelming support allowed the initiative to expand, bringing life-saving screenings to many more students.
Hilary Nicholls praised her daughter’s friends for turning tragedy into a positive initiative, saying, “Clarissa would be very proud of the legacy she has left at the university.”
The screenings now offer students “Rolls-Royce” quality ECG tests, a privilege Clarissa did not have. Through this campaign, Cambridge hopes to protect more students from undiagnosed heart issues.
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