Father ‘feels robbed’ after losing wife and son to same heart condition

Craig Murray, 59, said he feels “robbed” following the deaths of his son Chris and wife Linda, both of whom had been diagnosed with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), a heart condition which is often inherited.

Chris Murray was just 22 when he collapsed and died at work in 2017, having suffered a sudden cardiac arrest.

Mrs Murray had been taken to hospital in May 2024 where doctors tried to relieve fluid retention she was suffering because of her medication, but her condition deteriorated and she died on May 30.

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Mr Murray, from Glasgow, said the loss of his wife was made even harder by the fact she would have become a grandmother this year, with the couple’s son Craig Jnr and his wife due to have a baby in the summer.

“She is due on what would have been Linda’s 59th birthday, on July 20,” Mr Murray said.

“That’s given us some comfort. It was like a message or a sign from her.”

He went on: “I feel robbed, having lost my wife and son to heart disease.

“I’m not the victim, Linda and Chris are, but they still had so much to do.

“Linda would have loved to have been a grandma; she would have been the best grandparent. She’ll never get to see her grandchild and that would have given her such a boost.”

‘She knew she had a ticking time bomb’

Mr Murray said his wife had been diagnosed with HCM when she was 30 and their son was suspected of having it from the age of three, but they had not realised the “severity” of the condition.

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He added: “Linda’s mum had the same condition as her and she died two years before her, having experienced the same difficult symptoms.

“It also took Linda’s granddad, and Chris. She knew she had a ticking time bomb and that we could lose her at any time. She had to be really brave.”

Following their son’s death, the Murray family became ardent supporters of the British Heart Foundation (BHF), raising thousands of pounds for the charity.

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Mr Murray said: “The research BHF funds can help other people to have a different outcome.

“If that could be Linda and Chris’s legacy, helping to inspire fundraising or some sort of breakthrough with these heart conditions, it would mean a lot.”

Mr Murray was speaking ahead of the launch of the BHF’s new 10-year strategy which aims to “revolutionise” the way heart disease and stroke are prevented and treated.

Analysis by the BHF has found rising UK deaths among working-age adults from cardiovascular disease, increasing heart failure and growing risks from obesity and diabetes.

Cardiovascular deaths in working age adults have risen by 18 per cent since 2019, from 18,693 to 21,975 in 2023, averaging 420 a week.

The BHF said the shift follows decades of progress to nearly halve annual deaths from conditions such as heart attack and stroke since the 1960s.

It said issues such as an increasingly unhealthy population, widening health inequalities, the impact of Covid, pressure on the NHS and a lack of action over the last decade have all had an effect.