A headteacher who inherited a condition described as “a heart attack waiting to happen” is running the London Marathon in memory of a former pupil who died of the same disease.
Chris Hobson, 42, was inspired to raise funds for Heart UK in tribute to Rianna Wingett, who collapsed and died in 2009 aged 11 after a cross-country run.
Mr Hobson, now head of Hornchurch Academy Trust, had been deputy head at Rianna’s primary school in the area, where he had taught her. “This girl had everything going for her — she was a musician, was academically talented, a nice kid,” he recalled.
Rianna was found to have familial hypercholesterolaemia [FH], an inherited heart condition caused by a faulty gene that leads to excessively high cholesterol levels. Two years later Mr Hobson discovered he had it after his mother underwent surgery to remove gallstones.
“It was a shock being diagnosed with FH as I was fit and healthy and didn’t even know what level my cholesterol was,” he said. “I was a heart attack waiting to happen.”
After seven years struggling to find medication to reduce cholesterol without side- effects, his consultant at Guy’s Hospital, Dr Martin Crook, suggested a new class of drugs called PCSK9 inhibitors. These are administered via an injector similar to those used by diabetics. “I inject myself every two weeks and my cholesterol has come down,” he said.
Heart UK is calling for a national screening programme for FH. Undiagnosed and untreated, it leads to early heart disease including heart attack, stroke and sudden death. Jules Payne, the charity’s chief executive, said: “GPs don’t carry out cholesterol tests in most patients until they reach 40. More than 90 per cent of people with FH don’t know they have the condition.”
On April 22, Mr Hobson, a father of two from Gidea Park, hopes to complete his third London Marathon in three and a half hours. “There are more than 250,000 people with FH and most haven’t been diagnosed,” he said. Rianna’s mother Amanda said: “We wish him the best. He was Rianna’s teacher in year 3 and she got on well with him and enjoyed that year.”
