Woman widowed at 31 after husband falls ill the day after their wedding

Two widows, united by grief and a shared mission, are campaigning for mandatory NHS health checks for young adults.

Laura Burr, 31, and Gabby Evans, 32, connected on TikTok after documenting their experiences of losing their husbands in their early thirties.

Both women believe routine health screenings could have detected the underlying heart conditions that led to their partners' untimely deaths.

Ms Burr’s husband, Edward Burr, passed away in October 2024 at the age of 32. Ms Evans's partner, Tom Brakewell, died just months later in January 2025, aged 34.

Despite the geographical distance separating them – Laura lives in Banbury, Oxfordshire, while Gabby lives in Burnley, Lancashire – the two women have forged a strong bond, communicating daily to offer mutual support.

Driven by their personal tragedies, Ms Burr, who works for Scottish Power, and Ms Evans, a registered nurse, launched a petition this month advocating for mandatory health checks for individuals between 25 and 35.

Their aim is to identify and address underlying health issues before they become life-threatening, ensuring that others are spared the pain they have endured.

“We don’t want Tom and Edward to have died for no reason, their deaths have to count for something and maybe this petition is why,” Ms Burr said.

“We wanted to spend the rest of our lives with them, they were going to do wonderful things in the world and now they’re not able to.”

Ms Evans added: “If our campaign can get just one person to check their health, it’s worth it and we’ve done our job.”

Laura and Edward Burr married on April 6, 2024 after six years together.

The day after their wedding, Ms Burr said her new husband complained of feeling unwell. He was later admitted to hospital and diagnosed with pneumonia.

Soon afterward, he was in “active heart failure”.

On July 19, he underwent open heart surgery at the Harefield Hospital in London.

“He was put on the transplant list a week later and he was there until he passed away (in October) as they couldn’t get a heart for him in time,” Ms Burr said.

During his time in hospital, it was discovered he had dilated cardiomyopathy – a disease of the heart muscle where the chambers become enlarged and the muscle wall becomes thinner and weaker.

“The pneumonia tipped his body over and he couldn’t deal with the heart problem we didn’t know he had,” Ms Burr said.

Ms Evans said Mr Brakewell started experiencing headaches in August 2024, which the couple put down to him spending time in front of screens.

It was found he had high blood pressure and he was prescribed medication to help – but he then started having chest pains in January 2025 and was in hospital for a week.

Three days after he came home, Ms Evans said she woke up in the morning and found he had “stopped breathing”.

“I turned on the light and just knew instantly something wasn’t right, I started doing chest compressions before the paramedics came,” she said.

“They worked on him for about 45 minutes before they made the decision they couldn’t carry on and Tom wasn’t with us.

“I was with him when they pronounced him.”

Mr Brakewell had suffered a cardiac arrest. The cause of his death was later determined to be high hypertension and coronary heart disease.

“His heart was damaged and he’d had it for a long period – if he had full tests earlier it may have been picked up sooner,” Ms Evans said.

In March this year, Ms Burr and Ms Evans connected with each other via TikTok, where they had both been using the platform to document their grief.

They now talk every day to navigate becoming widows in their 30s – which they say they take “one day at a time”.

“Some days you don’t want to get out of bed and see the sunshine, I just want my person back,” Ms Burr said.

On May 2, the two women launched their Change.org petition calling for mandatory full health checks for those aged between 25 and 35, with the aim of detecting and preventing underlying health conditions.

“If Edward and Tom had been tested earlier or they had any kind of health MOT, it would have been picked up earlier and we may have had more time with them,” Ms Burr said.

Ms Evans added: “If we were to have these mandatory health checks, no one would have to go through what we’ve gone through.

“Grief and losing someone is part of life, but not at this age.”

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “Our deepest sympathies are with the families of Edward and Tom.

“The NHS’s life-saving health checks are targeted towards those at higher risk, preventing around 500 heart attacks and strokes every year and stopping people developing a range of diseases.

“To increase availability and uptake of the checks, we are developing a new online service that eligible people can use at home to understand their risk of cardiovascular disease and diabetes.”

To find out more, visit the petition.