Opposition spokesperson on Youth, Sports, Culture, Entertainment & Gender Affairs, Olivia ‘Babsy’ Grange, has expressed sadness and regret at the passing of Holmwood Technical High School athlete Jevaughn Daley, who died in the Mandeville Hospital at the weekend.

Grange said: “It is particularly disheartening because too many of our student athletes seem to be having critical medical challenges of which they are unaware and which have proven to be fatal, particularly in recent times. I am also concerned about the increasing number of these athletes who pick up injuries which are not properly treated and often result in the termination of many promising careers in sports.”

She went on to say that she feels that a renewed effort needs to be undertaken to have the young athletes, particularly those in school, medically screened to ascertain their suitability for the level of strenuous activity associated with involvement in competitive sports.

The opposition spokesperson, who is also Member of Parliament for Central St Catherine, has been working closely with the schools in her own constituency — particularly at the high school level, forging a relationship with medical practitioners to facilitate affordable medical check-up for student athletes.

But she feels the government could go even further. She pointed out that when she was in charge of the planning of the Jamaica-50 commemoration, one of the many legacy projects which were being contemplated then was a mobile medical unit for schools, which would be properly staffed and equipped to go around to schools across the island on a rotating basis to undertake tests and to diagnose and treat these career-threatening sports-related injuries.

Grange has called on the minister of sports to give consideration to making the mobile medical unit for schools a reality. She said that she is ready and available to discuss the idea with the minister, as health issues should transcend political divisions, particularly in the case of the youth.