Heart defect kills cyclist at 33

The father of a newlywed cyclist who died from an undetected heart defect while out for a ride told this week how his death had stunned his family.

Retired GP Robert Hinchliffe said that he would remember his 33-year-old son Peter for “his smile and his wicked sense of humour.”

Peter, who worked as a personal trainer and was a member of the Dinnington Wheelers cycling club, collapsed and died last month after climbing off his bicycle when he felt unwell.

Tests after his death found that he had died from a little-known heart defect and his brother and sister will now have to be screened to see if they are also in danger of heart problems.

Peter’s brother, called Robert like his father, is a vascular surgeon and his sister Sarah is a heart nurse specialist.

Mr Hinchliffe said: “Peter was the only one of the family who did not go into medicine or an academic career, but Robert used to say he had the best brain in the family.

“If we all watched Mastermind together, he would out-perform the lot of us.

“People have said that they will remember him for his sense of humour. He was a real leg-puller.”

Mr Hinchliffe, of Springwell Lane, Conisbrough, said that Peter, who married wife Rebecca Greatorex six months ago, had been undergoing medical tests after having a “funny turn” while out cycling three months ago, but doctors had not been able to identify what had caused the episode.

A postmortem examination revealed that Peter died from the heart defect arithnogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy (AVRC), which Mr Hinchliffe said could usually only be diagnosed by specialists after a series of tests.