Submitted by Megan Harrington on Thu, 17/10/2024 - 16:00
University of Cambridge Students were offered heart screenings in honour of undergraduate who suffered a sudden cardiac arrest. Clarissa Nicholls, tragically passed away from an undiagnosed arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy (ACM) while hiking in France in May 2023.
In response, her friends launched “Clarissa’s Campaign for Cambridge Hearts” and have successfully raised over £55,000 to provide electrocardiogram (ECG) screenings for hundreds of students in partnership with CRY Charity (Cardiac Risk in the Young). Clarissa's mother, Hilary Nicholls, shared with the BBC that her daughter would have been "very proud" of this initiative.
Clarissa, who was studying French and Italian at Trinity Hall, was in her third year abroad as part of her degree. She had been working for a publishing firm in Paris and was on a hiking trip in the Gorges du Verdon with a flatmate just days before her 21st birthday when the incident occurred. Following her death, the Nicholls family, from Wandsworth, London, committed themselves to raising awareness of heart conditions in young people and funding ECG screenings for others with undiagnosed heart conditions.
Two of her friends, Jessica Reeve and Izzy Winter, began a GoFundMe campaign, initially aiming to raise £7,000 to cover a day of ECG screenings for about 100 people.
Hilary Nicholls expressed her gratitude, noting how proud Clarissa would have been of the positive legacy left at the university, crediting her friends for turning the tragedy into something beneficial. She added that students are now being offered top-tier ECG screenings, an opportunity her daughter, unfortunately, did not have. In response to the event’s success, she said: ‘Thank you all for the teamwork required to make the debut screening sessions in Cambridge such a success. I am delighted that we managed to screen 209 young people over 2 days which might be a record for CRY!’
Anyone who spoke to Hilary or Clarissa’s friends on the day will understand just how much they have done to make these events possible and to ensure they were well attended. There are plans for more screenings to be held in January, an expression of interest form can be found here.