Birmingham student researches illness that killed brother

A student who submitted a Masters dissertation on a heart condition that killed her brother says she hopes he would be proud of her.

Molly Schiller, a University of Birmingham biochemistry student, posted a picture of herself holding her dissertation on Twitter on Wednesday.

Her brother Max died in 2015 aged 10 from hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and she has been researching the condition.

Her post has now been liked more than 500,000 times.

The 22-year-old from Finchley in north London tweeted: "In 2015, my baby brother passed away at age 10 from a heart condition called hypertrophic cardiomyopathy,

"Six years later, I've just submitted my Masters dissertation researching the genetic causes of the same condition.

"I hope you'd be proud of me, Max."

She said her "gorgeous" brother fell ill in 2014, but tests at Great Ormond Street Hospital revealed nothing.

In January 2015 he died with undiagnosed hypertrophic cardiomyopathy which causes the heart muscle cells to expand and the walls of the heart chambers thicken.

The condition can be difficult to identify in young children due to the heart being underdeveloped.

Since his death, his family have set up Max's Foundation which has raised hundreds of thousands of pounds towards towards a research nurse, a sibling support group at Noah's Ark Children's Hospice, and Cardiomyopathy UK, the heart muscle charity.

Ms Schiller described her brother as a ray of sunshine and said he was very much loved by everyone.

"He was always so caring. In his class, he always made sure that people had someone to talk to, and he would always make sure that his classmates were okay," she said.

"When I decided I wanted to go into science, and when we set up the charity, it was to show that his legacy is there for people to see.

"I would hope that he would be proud of what we're doing."

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