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The sudden death of Kay McGrath’s fiancé Richard Moores in India was devastating for those who loved him. But in the months that followed, his loss set off an unexpected chain reaction.

At least four of Richard’s friends began paying closer attention to symptoms they might once have dismissed. Several sought further medical advice and discovered serious heart problems of their own.

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WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: How Kay McGrath’s devastating loss may have saved four other lives

They now believe Richard may have saved their lives.

Among them is veteran journalist Chris Allen-Ducat, who was travelling with Kay and Richard in India when Richard suffered a fatal heart attack.

Kay McGrath speaks about the legacy of her late fiancé Richard Moore, pictured with friends in India, several of whom sought medical help after his death and discovered serious heart problems. Credit: 7NEWS/Supplied

Looking back, there had been signs something wasn’t right. Richard had complained of fatigue and indigestion, but neither Chris nor the others travelling with him suspected his heart was the problem.

That has stayed with Chris.

“I felt angry in some ways with myself,” he said.

Chris had particular reason to understand the risks of heart disease. His father suffered a heart attack in his 40s, and Chris had been seeing a cardiologist himself, taking medication for high cholesterol and undergoing regular check-ups and stress tests.

Yet Richard’s symptoms did not ring alarm bells.

“I didn’t look at Richard and see that at all and so I felt awful that maybe I should have asked more questions of him, but it was the last thing I presumed he would have been suffering from,” Chris said.

Then, weeks after returning home from India, Chris was sitting at a coffee shop when he began feeling dizzy and nauseous and struggled to breathe.

He might once have brushed it off. But the experience of losing Richard was fresh.

Chris and Cate Allen-Ducat speak with Kay McGrath about how Richard Moore’s death prompted them to take a closer look at Chris’s own heart health. Credit: 7NEWS

Further testing revealed a serious blockage in Chris Allen-Ducat’s heart, after Richard Moore’s death made him more alert to the subtle and unusual signs of heart disease. Credit: 7NEWS

Chris’s wife Cate was not prepared to take any chances. Although they had a doctor’s appointment later that day, she insisted they go straight to hospital when he continued to feel unwell.

An angiogram later revealed Chris had a blockage of more than 80 per cent in his left anterior descending artery.

“My cardiologist is still amazed,” Chris said.

“He said, ‘I cannot believe your situation was so bad’.”

Asked whether Richard had saved his life, Chris had no hesitation.

“I have no doubt that Richard saved my life,” he said.

Cate believes the experience in India fundamentally changed how they interpreted what might otherwise have seemed like vague symptoms.

“Had we not experienced what we did in India, we wouldn’t have really known to put it down to a heart issue,” she said.

Richard’s death had a similar effect on his other friends.

Ray Hawkins initially struggled to believe the news his friend had died.

“I thought it was fake news,” he told Kay.

“I had to message you to say, ‘Is this real? It can’t be real.”

Not long afterwards, Ray began experiencing symptoms of his own. There was no dramatic chest pain, no obvious warning that something was seriously wrong.

“The symptom was subtle,” he said.

“It wasn’t clutch-at-your-heart pain in the chest. It was subtle, but not normal.”

Initial tests did not reveal anything alarming, but Ray pushed for further investigation. An angiogram weeks later showed one of his arteries was fully blocked.

Doctors inserted a stent and Ray walked out of hospital two days later.

“I think males in general are pretty dumb in their approach to health and physical things,” he said.

Richard Moore’s friends Ian McEwan and Ray Hawkins say his sudden death prompted them to take their own heart health more seriously. Credit: 7NEWS

For another of Richard’s close friends, Ian McEwan, the warning came while playing golf.

He noticed an ache in his chest and pain in his arms.

“And I’m thinking, what’s this?” he said.

“I just knew something’s wrong and I thought about Richard and thought, ‘OK, I need to do something about it.’”

His GP sent him directly to emergency, where tests showed Ian had suffered a heart attack and had a completely blocked artery.

“Very lucky they could get a stent in ... so, very lucky, yes, very lucky,” he said.

In the aftermath, he has reflected on how easily he could have ignored what his body was telling him and continued playing.

“When I played on through golf and having a heart attack, no one was at the end saying, ‘We’re here to present you with a medal and trophy because you’re wonderful.,” he said.

Heart Foundation cardiologist Professor Derek Chew says underestimating personal risk is a common theme among men who experience heart disease. Credit: 7NEWS

Their stories share a common thread, one Heart Foundation cardiologist Professor Derek Chew said was all too familiar.

“Men underestimate their risk and underestimate the likelihood that they will actually experience events than women,” he said.

He urged people experiencing severe or limiting symptoms to call triple-0.

For Kay, there is some comfort in knowing Richard’s death may have prompted his friends to seek help when they needed it.

The group of friends still speak about the man who is no longer there.

“That’s a hard thing,” Ray said. “We’re sitting here without our third amigo who’d normally be talking to us about stuff.”

But they believe Richard would be pleased to know what happened after he died.

“He should be proud too, because he always looked out for us during his life,” Ian said.

“We owe him a lot.”