Steve is the Chief Executive of the national charity Cardiac Risk in the Young (CRY).
As an elite athlete on a university tennis scholarship in the US (1992), Steve was diagnosed with a rare, potentially life-threatening, cardiac condition during routine cardiac screening, giving him a unique personal insight into the impact of such a diagnosis.
Unable to continue his sporting career, he returned to the UK, where he completed a degree in Applied Psychology and Sociology (Surrey University); he went on to work with the world’s leading expert in inherited cardiac conditions and publish the first research into quality of life of patients living with Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy (1997). In 2007, he was awarded a PhD at University College London (UCL) in the 5* Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, evaluating illness cognitions of rare cardiac conditions and the psychological impact of cardiac screening.
Steve joined CRY in 2000; in 2016, he was appointed to his current role as CRY’s Chief Executive. CRY has now raised more than 50 million pounds. Steve oversaw a rapid expansion of the CRY cardiac screening programme, now testing more than 25,000 young people each year, and to date, more than 275,000 young people have had their hearts tested by CRY. Steve’s particular focus is on facilitating world-leading science through the work of Professors Sanjay Sharma, Michael Papadakis, and Mary Sheppard and their teams, which is transforming our understanding of the causes and prevention of young sudden cardiac death and how best to treat those affected. He has represented CRY on a number of government advisory groups, including the National Service Framework Chapter 8 (2005). He is regularly interviewed in the media about CRY and the prevention of Young Sudden Cardiac Death and has been an invited speaker at international medical conferences.
