North Staffordshire schoolgirl addresses parliament after uncle died in sleep

An inspirational Stoke-on-Trent schoolgirl has journeyed to London to speak to MPs about her family’s charity work. Frankie Hughes has been fundraising for the Cardiac Risk in the Young (CRY) charity from an early age. Her uncle, Daniel Hughes, tragically passed away in his sleep in 2015 as the result of an undiagnosed heart condition.

Wednesday, March 19, marked the 10-year anniversary of the ‘popular’ Bignall End postie’s untimely death. Since his passing, the Hughes family have devoted themselves to getting young people screened for potential cardiac issues across North Staffordshire. Daniel’s sister, Kim Hughes, says daughter Frankie’s charity work is doing the family ‘proud’.



She told StokeonTrentLive: “It’s strange coming up to the 10-year anniversary. Sometimes it feels like it was yesterday and sometimes it feels like it was ages ago. It’s just hard to fathom that it’s actually been 10 years without him.

It doesn’t feel real. It’s hard. “I do wonder what life would be like if he was still here.

He was my brother and my best friend. It’s such a shame the girls didn’t get to spend more time with him. Frankie was only two years old when he died.

My younger daughter, Millie, was born the day after he died. It would’ve been so nice for them to know their Uncle Dan better. Instead they live in his memory.

“Frankie has always done a lot for the charity. She goes on sponsored walks, fun runs and she holds the raffle at our annual cricket tournaments. She always does the Potter’s ‘Arf as well - she’s too young to get a proper number, but she just walks it anyway.

Instead she just walks it with her Uncle Dan’s name on the front. I couldn’t be more proud of her.” Over the last 10 years, the Hughes family have managed to raise an amazing £614,000 for CRY.

The money has been used to pay for 5,977 young people to undergo heart screening - with ‘at least two lives’ being saved as a result. 1,581 of those screenings have taken place at Sir Thomas Boughey, where Daniel’s niece Frankie currently studies. It was there that she met Newcastle-under-Lyme MP Adam Jogee - and received an invite to speak at the House of Commons.

David Hughes - Daniel’s father and Frankie’s grandfather - told StokeonTrentLive he was ‘touched’ by her efforts. He said: “She spoke to Adam Jogee at St Thomas Boughey Academy and he asked her to go down to London. She spoke to a bunch of politicians and the CEO of the British Heart Foundation.

Credit to her, she did an amazing job of it. Myself, her nan and her mum are immensely proud.” Sir Thomas Boughey Academy have also expressed their admiration for Frankie’s dedicated work.

Assistant Headteacher Scott Taylor said: "As a school we are incredibly proud of our links with such a wonderful organisation as CRY. It was, therefore, a total honour for one of our Year 7 pupils, Frankie Hughes to discuss the fundraising and heart screenings that she has been involved with, with the CEO of the British Heart Foundation, Dr Charmaine Griffiths and Local MP Adam Jogee at the Houses of Parliament." The Hughes family are now looking to continue their life-saving work into the future.

David added: “We pledged that we’d screen 200 young people for heart defects each year for as long as we possibly could. We’ve stuck to that promise for the past 10 years. We’re going to keep raising the money and keep that going.

We’ve already got enough funds secured to do screenings for the next four years. “You just never know. Your child can be perfectly normal one minute and the next they’re gone.

Having a simple 15-minute ECG test can save all that pain. So we’re going to continue doing our best to screen as many as we can.”.