A family has been left devastated after a third one of their children died of a rare heart condition.
Carrick Prentice-Underwood, 19, died on Thursday morning four years after the death of his brother Craig, 17, and seven years after his sister Charlotte, 16.
His parents, Maggie and Robert Underwood, say they feel ‘totally lost’ after the third tragedy to strike their family in recent years.
But the family, which has five other children, was back at work on Saturday fundraising for a charity they established in memory of their other children in Redditch, Worcestershire, BBC News reported.
Carrick Prentice-Underwood, 19, died on Thursday morning four years after the death of his brother Craig, and seven years on from his sister Charlotte’s death
They set up the Charlotte & Craig Saving Hearts Foundation following the deaths of Carrick’s siblings, to campaign for defibrillators in public places.
A younger brother, seven-year-old Mitchell, said the family should continue with the fundraiser and ‘do it for Carrick’.
A post from Carrick’s mother on a tribute Facebook page said: ‘Miss you son I’m sorry we couldn’t stop you leaving us so suddenly. You grew your wings and broke our hearts.’
On the charity page the family wrote: ‘We are heartbroken, numb and totally lost. Why is it always the good ones, so much evil and you keep taking our babies.’
Friends and supporters of the family have set up a JustGiving page to help the family pay for Carrick’s funeral costs.
Carrick’s siblings Craig (left), 17, and Charlotte (right), 16, also died as teenagers, after which the family had genetic tests revealing several of their children had rare heart conditions
A post on the fundraising page said: ‘[Maggie and Robert] are the nicest most selfless couple I have ever had the pleasure of meeting. They do everything for our community to help raise money to save lives, turning their pain into positive things.
‘It’s our chance to show our appreciation for what they do for us, and to help a Redditch family in tragedy.’
Charlotte, 16, was thought to have died of sudden arrythmia death syndrome in 2010, but when Craig, 17, died in 2013 the family had genetic testing.
It showed that four of the family’s other children had Vascular Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, according to the charity’s website, suggesting Charlotte may have had it too.
The charity has succeeded in having a defibrillator installed in Charlotte’s old school as well as other schools in the area.