De Lisle students' photography competition launched to back SADS Awareness Week

BUDDING photographers at a county school are remembering their friend Joe Humphries by taking part in a competition launched in his memory.

De Lisle College, in Loughborough, has launched a photography competition for students to coincide with SADS Awareness Week, which is running from 4-11 October.

Joe Humphries, a pupil of De Lisle, died tragically aged 14, of sudden arrhythmic death syndrome – SADS – while out on a training run near his home in October 2012.

Since his death, local charity the Joe Humphries Memorial Trust (JHMT) has been set up to increase awareness and understanding of potentially fatal, undiagnosed cardiac conditions and reduce the incidence of sudden, unexpected heart deaths in young people aged 12-35.

Joe loved photography, and the JHMT has already donated a variety of cameras to De Lisle College, to help students share in his passion.

Steve Humphries, chair of the Joe Humphries Memorial Trust, said: "One of the aims of the JHMT is to inspire young people to achieve to their full potential, which is why we were delighted to support the school by donating some cameras for their inaugural photography competition last year.

"It's very fitting that they are launching this year's competition during SADS Awareness Week, our annual week of awareness-raising activity to break the silence on this silent, hidden killer. Each week, sudden heart deaths claim the lives of 12 young people across the UK like Joe.

"By training more people in vital lifesaving skills and improving access to defibrillators, as well as making sure people know about SADS, we can make a positive difference to this shocking statistic."

Last year's competition at De Lisle attracted more than 100 entries.

Runner-up James Shelton greatly benefitted from the availability of the new cameras donated by JHMT. Already an accomplished photographer, his inspiring photos have since been used on the college website, as well as on the PE banner currently hanging above the college's swimming pool.

Another De Lisle student, James Tupper, is using the equipment to aid his Duke of Edinburgh award, combined his love of sport with photography to take photos of college sporting events.

Thanks to the Trust's provision of a variety of cameras, James progressed from using a compact camera to a DSLR and has been awarded his bronze, and is now well on his way to his silver, DofE award.

Zoe Higginson, Head of Year at De Lisle College, said: "The photography competition is just one of the ways in which students here have been supporting SADS Awareness Week. We've also had a non-uniform day, held cake sales and worked with our in-college JHMT/British Heart Foundation HeartStart accredited trainers to train the whole of our Year 7 in basic lifesaving skills. This training programme will be rolled out to other year groups over the course of this term.

"We're delighted to be launching our second annual photography competition on Friday (10) and professional photographer Lee Glasgow will be coming in to judge the event on Friday 21^st November.

"We already know, from last year's competition, that we can expect a phenomenal standard of entries from our talented students.

She added: "Joe Humphries was an integral member of our family and a well-loved and hard-working student. There are not enough positive words that can be used to describe Joe, he was an amazing person whose memory still lives on in the hearts of all those at De Lisle who knew and cared for him."

This week's SADS Awareness Week takes the theme 'don't be faint-hearted', and highlights how fainting without warning, in otherwise healthy individuals, can be one of the symptoms of an unexplained heart condition such as SADS.

During the week, local sporting clubs Leicester Tigers, Leicester City Football Club and Leicester Riders are uniting to help break the silence on SADS, holding CPR awareness sessions in half-time match breaks.

Community sports clubs, local groups and people from across Leicester and Leicestershire are also backing the week.

Posters raising awareness of SADS are also going up at sports clubs, schools and other community venues across the city and county.

To lend your support to SADS week, tweet "I'm breaking the silence on SADS" and using the hashtag #breakthesilence on Twitter. Direct your tweet at the JHMT Twitter feed, @JHMTorguk

To find out more about SADS Awareness Week, visit www.jhmt.org.uk or check out the Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/JHMTorguk, and Twitter feed @JHMTorguk.