Welcome to One Dan Hughes.com
This website is dedicated to the memory of Dan Hughes and the work that has
been carried out in his name since his death.
Scroll down to read Dan's Story.
​ Daniel Thomas Hughes
27/01/1987 - 19/03/2015
Waiting for him to wake up and say
"Only joking Mum!"
The 18th of March 2015 was just another normal night in the Hughes house, we’d all been to work and had dinner and were getting ready for Friday the 20th, the Day our Daughter Kim was going into hospital to give birth to our 3rd Grandchild.
“Our Dan” was 28, he’d had dinner with Sue and myself & we’d spent an hour working on a project he was looking into. Sue had gone up bed at 9 and at around 9:30 Dan walked past the living room door and said, "I'm going up now Dad" to which I replied "O.K. son, see you later". Nothing strange about that little conversation you may think except that it was the last time anyone would speak to him.
Sue heard him get up to use the bathroom at around 1am; he went back to his room and went to sleep. According to his post mortem report his heart stopped at around 3:30am on the morning of the 19th and he passed away peacefully as he slept.
When he failed to get up for work in the morning Sue knocked on his door expecting him to have overslept but when he failed to respond she suspected something may not be right. She entered his room, Dan was lying on his side with his head resting on his hands just as if he were still asleep but unfortunately that wasn’t the case. He was unresponsive to Sue calling his name or shaking him by the shoulder. She called the emergency services who told her to perform CPR and that the first responders were on their way. Sue was a first aider at the place she worked so she had been trained to administer CPR, she fought with everything she had to bring her son back. When the paramedic arrived he went into Dan’s room but came out shortly after to say that there was nothing he could do – Dan was dead.
Dan's post mortem returned Sudden Adult Death Syndrome (SADS) as the cause of death. All his major organs were perfectly normal including his heart even though it had stopped. There were no warning signs, no chest pains, no headaches, no lack of breath or anything else to indicate that he was going to lose his life so suddenly. He was a very fit young man, he was a postman so he was walking 5 miles per day. At weekends he played football, (something he’d done since he was 10 years old) and was a regular at the local gym during the week. The outdoor life suited him and he was at his happiest when he was doing sport be it golf, football or snowboarding in the alps with his friends. He was a happy young man, something which gets repeated time and time again on the “remembering Dan” page of this website.
We miss him dearly – everyone who knew him does. He was a clown, he cared about his family and his friends and would help anyone.
What happened to Dan happens 12 times a week in the UK and it has to stop. Our work with CRY is saving young lives by detecting heart defects in young people and ensuring that they receive the necessary treatment to prevent another family having to endure the loss of a child.
The reason Dan’s memorial fund is so successful is purely down to the person he was while he was with us ; we carry on with the work in his name.
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There is only One Dan Hughes.
The video below was made for the evening
we received a Pride of Birmingham award
Click on the photo to view the video
We have a memorial garden for Dan at
Audley Football Club; click on the picture below to find out more.