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Gas pair’s lives saved

by Adam Derbyshire
8/10/2008

WHEN husband and wife Mohammed and Massarad Arshad stopped for a swift health check after visiting their local mosque, little did they realise it would save their lives.

The couple had just finished prayers and were making their way home.

Feeling under the weather, they decided to visit the health stand for a check-up.They complained of chest pains and were persuaded to have their carbon monoxide levels checked.

To their astonishment the results were dangerously high. A standard reading would be six, but health worker Azara Azam took readings of 91 and 74.

Within half-an-hour an engineer from British Gas arrived at the couple’s home in Ashton and found a blocked flue in their fire was releasing deadly carbon monoxide fumes into the living room.

Carbon monoxide is colourless and odourless. If the blocked flue hadn’t been detected it would have killed the couple within days.

Run by local health chiefs in conjunction with the Blood Pressure Association, the health stand was carrying out on-the-spot screenings to check blood pressure and blood sugar levels.

Mr Arshad said: "I had been having chest pains and pains in my neck and a sore throat.  It’s thanks to Azara who persuaded us to take the tests."

Azara said: "Mr and Mrs Arshad both have health problems and stopped by our stand to have their blood pressure checked. I persuaded them to have the carbon monoxide levels checked, something we would normally do for smokers or passive smokers. It’s a good job they did, it probably saved their lives."