Clare Fiona Kelly
July 2, 1975 to April 28, 2001
My daughter Clare was twenty five years old when she passed away suddenly. Clare was two months away from her twenty-sixth birthday. She was in the prime of her life. Clare and her boyfriend were about to buy their own home. They had so many plans for their future. Sadly it was not to be.
She was taking scuba diving lessons with her boyfriend. They were having a free swim when she went into cardiac arrest. There was no defibrillator at the pool. By the time the emergency vehicle got to her it was too late. They couldn’t restart her heart.
I was in shock. I simply could not believe what happened. I kept asking, "How could this be?" She was so young and healthy. There was no apparent reason why she should just die. Then my youngest daughter found The Canadian SADS.
Foundation. We were given a lot of information. We learned that everybody in the family had to be checked out. Several months later her father was found to have Long QT Syndrome type one, a genetic heart condition.
If only we had known sooner things might have been different. It has been a traumatic experience for our family to lose someone so young. I think of her everyday.
The problem with this disease is it is like a time bomb waiting to go off and we never know when.
Submitted by:
Sheila Kelly, Mother of Clare
Calgary, AB
| Sheila Kelly, Clare’s Mom, began sending regular donations to The Canadian SADS Foundation about 3 years ago and continues to do so to this day. Sheila has rallied her co-workers, friends and family to assist her in collecting soda pop cans which she turns in for money and forwards to our organization. This fund-raising activity involves a group of people who now are more aware about cardiac rhythm disorders in the young while at the same time, are engaged in an environmentally friendly service to the community. Thanks Sheila for your dedication to The Canadian SADS Foundation |