{"id":500817,"date":"2026-03-28T22:26:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-28T22:26:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/500817\/"},"modified":"2026-03-28T22:26:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-28T22:26:12","slug":"my-sister-had-her-whole-life-ahead-of-her-then-she-collapsed-and-died-while-out-for-a-run","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/500817\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018My sister had her whole life ahead of her. Then she collapsed and died while out for a run\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Your support helps us to tell the story<\/p>\n

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it’s investigating the financials of Elon Musk’s pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, ‘The A Word’, which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.<\/p>\n

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.<\/p>\n

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.<\/p>\n

Your support makes all the difference.Read more<\/p>\n

Aged 27 and with her life ahead of her, Claire Taylor was excited for her future.<\/p>\n

A newly-qualified teacher<\/a> living in Nottingham<\/a> with her fianc\u00e9 Paul Betts, she was planning their wedding<\/a> and set to begin her special educational needs teacher training.<\/p>\n

Claire, who was born in Liverpool<\/a>, regularly went for runs to clear her head and, on 26 August 2016, the Friday of a bank holiday weekend, she did just that.<\/p>\n

But during that run<\/a>, she collapsed in the street unexpectedly. <\/p>\n

People in a nearby home ran out to try to help her, and an ambulance was called to take her to hospital \u2013 but Claire could not be saved. <\/p>\n

Her sister, Katie Taylor-Rossall, 35, said she and her partner were due to travel to Nottingham<\/a> that weekend to try on bridesmaid dresses for Claire and Paul\u2019s wedding when she received the heartbreaking call from her parents to say Claire had died. <\/p>\n

About her sister, Katie told The Independent: \u201cShe was just really loving life and doing everything she could.<\/p>\n

\"ClaireClaire and her sister Katie (Katie Taylor-Rossall)<\/p>\n

\u201cWe’d just done all of the wedding dress shopping for her, and I was already planning [for the wedding]. We were already meant to be going down because we were doing bridesmaid dress try on and all of that kind of stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n

She added: \u201cIt was just a complete cardiac arrest<\/a> on the street, completely out of the blue.\u201d<\/p>\n

Claire\u2019s death hit her family hard, and at first, they did not know what had caused Claire to collapse. The family later found out that she had died from sudden arrhythmogenic death syndrome (Sads) \u2013 a genetic heart condition that can cause sudden death in young, otherwise healthy people.<\/p>\n

Katie said her sister had experienced some heart palpitations in the months before her death, but was otherwise fit and healthy, and the family was told there were no signs pointing to her being at risk of a cardiac event.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow scary it was, my sister had just collapsed and died with no signs and symptoms\u201d, Katie said.<\/p>\n

The family worked with charity<\/a> Cardiac Risk in the Young (CRY) following Claire\u2019s death to try to find out the cause and, crucially, helped them check whether they too were at any risk of heart complications. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s terrifying when somebody dies, and you don’t know what it is or whether you could be affected as well,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe still don’t really know why this happened to Claire\u201d, Katie said. \u201cBut we know that it isn’t carried by my parents or myself \u2013 the signs and symptoms.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to CRY, at least 12 young people die of undiagnosed heart conditions every week in the UK. The charity works to reduce the frequency of sudden cardiac death in young people and support those diagnosed with life-changing conditions.<\/p>\n

\"KatieKatie Taylor-Rossall will swim 24 miles in the Lake District to raise money (Supplied)<\/p>\n

A decade on from Claire\u2019s death, Katie, who lives in Preston and works for the NHS, will swim three large lakes as part of an effort to raise \u00a310,000 for CRY in her sister\u2019s memory. They want to fund more screenings so heart conditions can be spotted and diagnosed. <\/p>\n

She will swim 24 miles across Coniston, Ullswater and Windermere in the Lake District, making up a swimming ultramarathon. <\/p>\n

Friends and family are also taking part in challenges and organising fundraising events to help reach the target.<\/p>\n

On their fundraising, Katie said: \u201cIt is going towards further research and towards putting on more screenings so that we can prevent this from happening to anybody else, which is just. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe know how devastating it is when somebody at the start of their incredible life then disappears from that life. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere are going to be thousands of people across the nation that know somebody, or know somebody who knows somebody who has suffered in this way, but it is preventable,\u201d Katie said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we can prevent a single family going through what we’ve gone through, then that’s what it’s all about at the end of the day, isn’t it? <\/p>\n

\u201cWe can’t bring Claire back, but we can prevent this happening to somebody else.\u201d<\/p>\n

You can donate to the fundraiser here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":500818,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-500817","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500817","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=500817"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500817\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/500818"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=500817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=500817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=500817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}