A young and super-fit man collapsed and died suddenly after running a half marathon.
20-year-old Xavier O’Grady had just run across the finish line at Melbourne’s half marathon last October when he died suddenly of a heart attack despite having no underlying health issues.
As his shocked family now revealed, the young man was known for being healthy and extremely fit. He also didn’t suffer from any known health problems.
Unfortunately, Xavier’s family remains baffled and still hasn’t reached a complete closure due to the autopsy results coming back as unascertainable.
“He died of a sudden cardiac arrest at the finish line and his autopsy came back as unascertainable so, no rhyme or reason as to what caused it,” the man’s sister, former athletics star Bella O’Grady, now said in an interview with 7plus.
“He was a super fit and healthy kid, he’d just finished a season of colts rugby and anyone that knows me or my family knows that we’re all pretty close and very tight, and this has obviously been incredibly devastating.”
Bella also revealed that her family has since launched a foundation called Heartbeats for Xav which focuses on raising money to fund research into sudden cardiac arrests.
“I’m hoping to get the support of the athletics community behind myself and my family, given that, recently retired but athletics has been a massive part of my life for upwards of 20 years,” the athlete continued.
“We’re looking to raise money for research into why sudden cardiac arrest occurs in particularly, fit males. Four people between 15 and 30 die a week of this phenomenon and it’s just astronomical.”
O’Grady further revealed that the foundation honoring her little brother already managed to raise over half a million dollars for the good cause.
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