Vital testing which could identify previously undiagnosed heart conditions has been offered to apprentices in Barrow.

The charity, Cardiac Risk in the Young (CRY), arranged the screening at the suggestion of engineer David Hughes, whose 28-year-old son died suddenly in 2015.

Daniel Hughes was at home on March 18, 2015 and, after saying goodnight to his parents, went to bed as normal.

Next morning, when he failed to get up for work, his parents were unable to rouse him and performed CPR but were unable to revive him.

Daniel was later with an undiagnosed heart defect which caused Sudden Adult Death Syndrome (SADS).

After his death, his parents teamed up with heart screening charity, Cardiac Risk in the Young (CRY), which provides screening for young people between the ages of 14 and 35 years.

The charity has brought staff to Barrow to offer heart screening tests for BAE Systems apprentices and over one hundred workers have signed up.

Mr Hughes said: "From my own personal experience, having lost my son at the age of 28 from an undiagnosed heart condition, I can’t stress enough the importance of attending if you have an appointment.

"It only takes 15 minutes to have the ECG and, if it picks an issue, up the CRY team is on hand to provide advice."

Ian Burns, Safety, Health and Environment (SHE) Director for BAE Systems, said: "We're delighted to host this kind of event.

"Raising awareness of this condition is vital and if just one person is given advice as a result of the screening it will have been time well spent."

Out of the 101 young people who signed up, 97 were given the all clear, two were referred for further tests and one person has been recommended to return for a retest in the future.

Mr Hughes added: "These figures show just how important screening is, the two young people who have been referred had no idea they had a problem when they arrived for work yesterday morning.

"I hope this is the start of a regular series of testing that could potentially save a life."