Tragic twist just six months after couple get married
Darren Brooks died 'unexpectedly' from a hidden heart condition despite being fit and healthy.
A devastated wife revealed her new husband died at the wheel - just six months after getting married.
Darren Brooks died 'unexpectedly' while driving his work van due to an underlying but potentially deadly heart condition he never knew he had called hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HOCM).
Onlookers spotted the 41-year-old 'slumped' at the wheel on a motorway and he tragically died instantly at the scene. The field engineer 'loved going to the gym' and lived an 'active' lifestyle so his wife Sarah Brooks says there was 'no reason to suspect' anything was wrong.
Sarah had been 'excited' to experience married life with him having got hitched just six months earlier, in March 2022.
"It was just horrible. We'd just started married life and were excited to start a family and excited to do everything," Sarah, 37, said. "You just never envision losing your husband that early in life ever. We were planning on having a family. We were just in love."
Wife recalls horror phone call that changed life forever
Sarah said the day of Darren's death started "as normal".
"I always rang him when I was on my lunch hour. The police answered his phone and questioned where I was and needed to see me that morning," she said.
The 37-year-old revealed her husband's active lifestyle led doctors to dismiss his 'large heart', which is a symptom of HOCM.
"He had no symptoms or reason to suspect something was wrong," she said. :He went to the gym everyday. He loved going to the gym and kept himself active. He was never someone who would sit around. He ate healthily.
"He was told he had a large heart but because he'd liked going to the gym they said that was normal with his frame.
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What is Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy?
Unfortunately, a large heart is actually one of the symptoms of Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. The condition restricts the heart's capacity to pump blood around the body and is known to cause sudden cardiac death in athletes.
Many young sports stars have died from the condition, including former Manchester City footballer Marc-Vivien Foé, 28, in 2003, basketball player Hank Gathers, 23, in 1990 and basketball player Reggie Lewis, 27, in 1993.
Sarah revealed her late husband 'always wanted' to do a skydive and hopes he now can as she has two tattoos on her arms with Darren's ashes in. The skydive will raise money towards supporting the British Heart Foundation, the wife hopes to prevent anyone else from experiencing the 'hell' she has been through after his death.
"I just want to make someone think if they have a symptom or anything to go and get themselves checked out. If I can stop one family going through the hell that I've gone through then that's all I want.
"There's a lot of people that do have underlying conditions they don't know about. You just never know what's around the corner. I would never wish what happened to me on anyone, to go through the loss of a husband at such a young age.
"If I can just save one person and if something positive can come out of something so negative it makes life a little bit easier."
A GoFundMe page, which has currently raised nearly $6000AUD.
— Kennedy News and Media
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