THE parents of a York teenage heart attack victim today urged local people to keep raising money for a charity aimed at avoiding similar tragedies - on what would have been his 16th birthday.

Jamie Bucknell died, aged 14, in November 2001, leaving parents Keith and Debbie and sister Jodie, of Strensall, York, devastated.

Shortly after Jamie's death, the family teamed up with the Evening Press to run the massively successful Jamie's Have A Heart Appeal.

Then, in the following six months, they raised more than £30,000 for the charity Cardiac Risk in the Young (CRY).

A permanent memorial fund to Jamie was set up through CRY.

After a break, the Bucknells, of Brecks Lane, started fundraising again, and so far have added an extra £5,000 to the total.

Today, Keith said he, Debbie and Jodie wanted to do whatever they could to stop any other family suffering the way they have.

He said: "We never thought this would happen to us. We want to stop it happening to others, but we, or CRY, need cash to do that.

"The ultimate aim for us, working with CRY, is to see a heart screening programme put in place for young people that could help save other people from going through what we have been through."

Keith said various fundraising events he had been involved with had reminded him of the love Jamie inspired.

He said: "They (the events) have always been so well-attended and well-supported, it shows just how popular he was and how much people loved him.

"Somebody said to me recently people's purpose in life is to inspire love.

"From what I have seen since we lost Jamie, he has inspired an awful lot of love in this world."

Jamie's Have A Heart Appeal quickly paid for 12 new portable heart monitors for use at York Hospital.

Only months after the monitors were bought, staff at the hospital's cardio-respiratory department revealed they had slashed waiting times.

The teenager's tragic death has also attracted national media attention.

The couple's long battle with Strensall Parish Council over the design of Jamie's gravestone, exclusively revealed in the Evening Press, was featured on television and in national newspapers.

To make a donation to Jamie's Memorial Fund, make cheques out to CRY and send them to: Keith and Debbie Bucknell, 18 Brecks Lane, Strensall, York.

Updated: 10:57 Wednesday, March 05, 2003