THE birth of a baby is usually a joyous event. But for Theresa James it was the start of a crisis which changed her life. However, she probably has the arrival of her baby to thank for the fact that she is still alive today, as PAULINE HAWKINS found out. . .

MOTHER-OF-TWO Teresa James calls her daughter Georgina her little lifesaver.

Teresa was 32, and already the mother of a three-year-old son, when she began suffering severe chest pains just after her daughter was born.

Tests revealed a blood infection and four days after Georgina's birth Teresa was diagnosed with a genetic condition called hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, the biggest single cause of death in people aged under 25.

The condition hit the headlines after 15-year-old Daniel Yorath, brother of television presenter Gabby Yorath, died while playing football with his soccer coach father Terry in the 1990s.

Estimates are that it affects one in 500 people in the UK. Because it is passed down through the generations, the Cardiomyopathy Association, of which Gabby is patron, is campaigning for mandatory screening of all first degree relatives (parent, brother, sister or child) of people known to have it.

The condition, which causes excessive thickening of the heart muscle, often affects young people who are physically active and in extreme cases they can die, as Daniel Yorath did, while playing sport.But for most people, the quality and length of their life will not be affected and, although it is incurable, it can be treated if diagnosed.

Now Teresa, who lives in Blackburn, faces an anxious wait to find out whether either of her children have inherited the condition. The chances are 50-50 and, although Georgina and Christopher are given checks every three years, the chances of any signs of the disease appearing are slim until they reach puberty.

But until the condition is confirmed, Teresa will make sure both her children carry on living their lives as normal.

"I do not want it to change their lives.

"They are both very active and I think it would be an awful shame to spoil their lives," she said.

She cannot say whether she would have considered having children if she had known before their birth of the condition's presence.

But advice from the Cardiomyopathy Association is that pregnancy is safe and delivery should be normal for most women, although epidural anaesthesia should be avoided as it could cause a severe fall in blood pressure.

Teresa believes the Government should be putting more resources into the National Health Service to screen close relatives and prevent needless deaths in the young.

She explained how the joy of giving birth to her daughter at Queen's Park Hospital in Blackburn had suddenly turned to panic when she began to suffer chest pains. She had felt unwell during her second pregnancy but did not know why.

"I thought I was going to die the next day.

"I had this lovely baby girl and all of a sudden I was in a heart ward being told I had a defective heart.

"If it had not been for Georgina I would not have known any different.

"I would have just gone through life not knowing I had got it. Georgina was my little lifesaver," she said.

Teresa had never been ill as a child and as she grew up became keenly interested in keep-fit.

But she had never suffered any signs of being ill and hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, or HOCM, had never crossed her mind, even though her mother Maureen Berry's nephew Dominic and niece Francesca had both died in Ireland in the 1990s, aged 21 and 28 respectively. Dominic, like Daniel Yorath, died on the football pitch but doctors said they thought Teresa had done her heart more good than harm by exercising it.

Two of Dominic and Francesca's brothers were also diagnosed with the condition and Teresa believes that if her cousins had been aware they had the condition they could have changed their lifestyles and still been alive today.

Maureen, who also lives in Blackburn, is not affected and Teresa said when she went for a heart scan and electrocardiogram she could not believe the difference in size between her mother's heart muscle and her own.

She is fortunate in that she does not have to take any drugs to keep the condition under control, although she is careful not to eat too much salt in her diet.

Teresa, who works part-time for a company called Cad-Capture, in Greenbank, Blackburn, as a training and quality administrator, said her employers had been "brilliant". She said: "I have two children to bring up but I still go to work and it doesn't affect my working. They say people generally die from it between the ages of 20 and 40 and the chances of my heart changing are very slim. It's like anything -- you don't worry about it, you just get on with life. You just live as normal a life as possible."

The Cardiomyopathy Association can be contacted on 0800 0181024 (freephone) or visit the website at www.cardiomyopathy.org