It could stop some talented sports stars from retiring early.

In January, gridiron maestro Damar Hamlin, who plays safety for the Buffalo Bills, collapsed from a cardiac arrest while making what appeared to be a routine tackle during an NFL game against the Cincinnati Bengals. Fortunately, medics rushed to his aid and managed to restore his heartbeat on the field, with Hamlin then transferred to a medical facility.

It seems somewhat illogical that a young sports star at the peak of their fitness and apparently symptom-free such as Hamlin— who is only 24 years old—should suffer from a heart problem: something many still associate with poor lifestyle choices. It’s not known what caused Hamlin’s cardiac arrest, but typically when hearts stop beating in healthy young people, the hidden time bomb of an inherited heart muscle disease is often to blame.

Hamlin has since been discharged from hospital and is currently continuing his rehabilitation with the Bills. For many sports fans, the incident triggered memories of Christian Eriksen, the Danish soccer player who collapsed with a cardiac arrest 43 minutes into a Euro 2020 game against Finland in summer 2021.

Although Eriksen has since had an implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) fitted and returned to the Premier League, playing for Manchester United, heart conditions have forced many other professional sportspeople to retire.

In 2012, Bolton Wanderers midfielder Fabrice Muamba collapsed on the pitch due to a cardiac arrest during an FA Cup tie against Tottenham Hotspur at White Hart Lane stadium, North London. For 78 minutes, his heart didn’t beat. It was Muamba’s final game; he retired shortly afterwards and now works as a youth coach.

Four years later, the cricketing career of Nottinghamshire and England batsman James Taylor ended at the age of 26 after medical scans revealed he had ARVC (arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy), a rare disease of the heart muscle which increases the risk of cardiac arrest. The likes of former Argentina and Manchester City forward

Sergio Agüero and Cagliari goalkeeper Manuel Almunia have both been forced to retire from sport due to heart-related issues (tests revealed the latter was suffering from an apical hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, or HCM).

Early diagnosis and quick-thinking medics were sadly not an option for talented soccer player Marc-Vivien Foé, who died aged 28 playing for Cameroon in 2003, with an autopsy later finding he had a hereditary heart condition.

Sadly, there have also been many cases of young aspiring sportspeople suffering from genetic cardiomyopathies before realizing their potential, such as 16-year-old John Marshall, who died on the day he was due to sign for Everton.

It could enable thousands of families to lead normal lives.

One of the cruelest aspects of genetic cardiomyopathies is that people with a disease-causing faulty gene have a 50 percent chance of passing the condition on to their children. In many cases, multiple members of the same family are affected: Muamba recently revealed his three sons have also inherited the faulty gene which caused his collapse in 2012. Although the cures that CureHeart aim to develop will not stop faulty genes getting passed on, it is hoped that they will allow affected individuals to live free from the fear of sudden death or heart failure.

Until cures arrive, genetic cardiomyopathies can only be treated to reduce symptoms and the risk of sudden death. In the case of those who are at risk of having a life-threatening abnormal heart rhythm, this treatment takes the form of an ICD. These are brilliant devices that can detect and treat potentially fatal heart rhythms. However, ICDs save lives by sending an electric shock to the heart when its rhythm goes out of kilter, and this can be uncomfortable and worrisome.

Max Jarmey, from the UK, was fitted with an ICD shortly after being diagnosed with arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy (ARVC) in 2013. “If my heart goes above 200 beats per minute, the defibrillator will shock me with around 70-90 joules of energy through my chest and ribcage,” he says.

It’s hardly surprising, but a condition that may cause sudden death such as genetic cardiomyopathy can have an enormous mental toll on patients. “Around 15 to 20 percent of my brainpower and consciousness is spent thinking about my condition or trying to manage it,” says Jarmey. “I have no idea which way it will go, or what my future might hold—and that’s scary.”

BHF Professor Hugh Watkins—a clinical cardiologist and laboratory scientist—likens the approach of CureHeart to “fixing the spelling mistake in the gene and restoring it back to normal in the heart.” Beyond genetic cardiomyopathies, the technologies and treatments developed by CureHeart may pave the road for new ways of tackling a multitude of cardiovascular diseases where genetic factors play a key role. Ultimately, genes may become the drug targets of 21st-century cardiovascular medicine.

The first human trials using CRISPR-Cas9 technology have already taken place: in 2020, it was used on six people with a hereditary form of blindness. Thanks to the elimination of the genetic mutation which caused the disease, two of those people can now see colour for the first time in years.

Please contact philanthropy@bhf.org.uk to discover more, and to find out how your donations could fast-track groundbreaking research into heart and circulatory diseases to save millions of lives worldwide.