A PRIMARY school got their dancing shoes on to show support for their former teacher whose fiancé died suddenly just weeks before they were getting married.

Lucy Goodwin’s fiancé Tom died aged 35 in May 2014 because of an undiagnosed heart defect – 11 weeks before they were due to be wed.

Tom collapsed at their home while Lucy was on a friend’s hen night in Liverpool and was later found to have died from Sudden Arrhythmic Death Syndrome – a condition that claims the lives of 12 people aged 14-35 every week.

Lucy, 30, said: “He just died with no symptoms at all – it was awful.

“He was absolutely fine and then six weeks before he died we went out for a meal for his birthday and we got home – at about 5am he got up to the go to the toilet and I just heard this bang.

“I thought he’d fallen over my shoes – I got up and went to see him and he was just propped up against the door with his eyes closed.

“I thought he’d just passed out because you don’t just think his heart has stopped.

“I didn’t think anything that bad of it but for six weeks I was constantly worried about him.

“Then I went on a hen do because my friend was getting married three weeks before me and I spoke to him on the Friday night and he was fine, he just had a bit of a cold.

“I woke up on Saturday morning and spoke to him – then about 11pm I tried to ring him and couldn’t get hold of him and thought that was a bit weird because I’d told him I was going to ring him.

“I tried ringing him again and got his mum and dad to go round – he’d gone to the bathroom to have a shower, felt funny, sat down and switched off.

“His heart just stopped – he just went like that.

“It’s a totally undiagnosed heart condition, people don’t know they’ve got it and 12 people a week die from it – it’s a lot but you don’t hear about it.

“It’s so common but before I wasn’t aware of it.”

Now pupils at Grappenhall Heys Primary School, where Lucy worked for three years before she left at Easter 2014, have helped her with efforts to raise money for heart screenings by holding a two-hour danceathon.

They were joined by a teacher from the London-based Pineapple Dance Studios for the event, which saw all pupils from ages 3-11 take part in two hours solid of dancing on Monday October 12.

The primary school had previously raised over £1000 in a cake sale last November, and Lucy’s fundraising efforts total £3500 so far.

She added: “I loved working here, it was amazing but I just had to move on.

“It’s like a little family – they’ve been amazing and they’ve been raising money.

“I got engaged while I was here so everybody was coming to the wedding and all the parents were really excited and it was sad when I left.

“Everybody’s just been so supportive and so much money has gone in to it.

“I wouldn’t want anyone to go through this so if I can make one person aware that they’ve got a heart defect it would be amazing.

“If Tom had been for a screening then I wouldn’t be in this position.

“I think that when Tom died I think I just felt like I wanted to get something positive from an awful situation.

“You never think it will happen to you.”