Matilda Pritchard seemed like a happy and healthy 11 year old girl. Her parents never suspected that anything was wrong. She didn’t show any signs or symptoms of having any health conditions.

On April 2, 2024, Matilda went to sleep for the night as usual. Nothing was out of the ordinary. According to The Daily Mail, her father, Steve Pritchard, said that she went to sleep “normally.”

The next morning was anything but normal.

Matilda didn’t wake up on April 3rd. Steve, and his wife, Anna Pritchard, were not able to get her to wake up, so they called the paramedics who were also unable to revive her. She was taken to the hospital and was immediately pronounced dead. Her cause of death was cardiac arrest.

It turns out that Matilda had an undiagnosed heart condition called arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy. Tragically, the first sign of this condition is often sudden death, such as in Matilda’s case.

When a person has arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy, their heart muscles aren’t as strong as they should be and they have to work extra hard to pump blood.

After Matilda’s death, Steve, Anna and Matilda’s older sister Olivia were all tested to see if they have arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy. They do not.

There is no cure for arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy, but there are treatment options such as heart surgery, medications, and surgery to install a pacemaker. 

Symptoms of arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy include pain or discomfort in the chest, swelling in the chest, fainting, breathlessness and heart palpitations. 

One thing that Matilda was passionate about was cleaning up litter, so in her memory, her family is trying to raise money to support the Eco-Schools program, and particularly their litter program which aims to educate children about cleaning up litter and helping the environment.

Steve describes losing his daughter as “catastrophically terrible,” but he also feels that cleaning up the plant would be Matilda’s “last wish.” He said, “I’m hoping we can start the process of our little girl’s dream, of a world without litter.”

The online fundraiser was set up at JustGiving with the goal of raising £42,000. Currently, the fundraiser has raised 67% of their goal.

On the fundraising website, Matilda is described as “regularly picking up litter in her local Pudsey parks.” In addition, “she finds joy in seeing a clean space after her efforts.”