Kevin Lewis, 62, was having a massage in Hazel Grove in May 2022 when he died.
The death of the popular former amateur football coach, granddad, and dad-of-four came “completely out of the blue”, according to one of his children, Luke Lewis, 32.
Kevin was a well-known local character in Stockport where he coached the Apollo Juniors football team for years.
Luke said his father suffered from a bad back that was “really giving him some grief”, so he decided to get a massage. During the appointment, he sadly suffered a cardiac arrest.
Luke is now warning others about the dangers of silent killers after the shock of his father’s sudden death.
Luke told Manchester Evening News: “It wasn’t like cancer that happens slowly, it was a shock, I can’t even get my head over it a year and half down the line.
“They couldn’t give us a solid answer, it’s one of those where we assume it’s something like a blocked artery, but truth be told they can’t go into that much detail.”
Prior to the cardiac arrest, Kevin was “fit, pretty active, and always out walking“.
Luke continued: “In the latter stages, he was doing property renovation stuff, he was doing work on his own house, so he was up and down ladders doing all sorts on the house, so he was fairly active hence why it was a shock.”
After the unexpected death, Luke said that the whole family decided to get their heart health checked.
He expressed the difficulties of identifying symptoms for underlying heart conditions and the complexities of trying to prevent them.
Luke is also urging others to do what they can to get ahead of a potentially life-threatening problem.
The 32-year-old said: “It’s a really complicated one, your mind starts to wander a lot of the time. Why me? What did he do? Look at his diet and his background.
“For a young man, I’m 32 I’ve got two kids and it scares the living daylights out of you. If there’s anyone out there with a history of heart related disease they should get checked.”
Luke, his brother Connor Lewis, and family friend Mark Aspinall, took on the Tatton Park Half Marathon on Sunday 19 November in remembrance of their father and to raise money for the British Heart Foundation (BHF).
After a wet and windy 13.1-mile race, they managed to raise over £2000 in just a few weeks.
Luke added: “It was firstly important to raise awareness – that was the key thing, the human heart, and the complexities of it.
“Prevention – is it diet or do people need to get checked out more often with things like this? It’s all about raising awareness that will lead to protecting themselves and their families.”
You can support Luke and Conor by donating to their Just Giving page here.
