Parents speak out to
raise awareness of meningitis

by Katie Alston

kalston@thekmgroup.co.uk

Brave Stephanie Biggs and Liam
Keown are still coming to terms with the death of
seven-and-a-half-month-old Gracie, who lost her battle with
meningococcal meningitis and septicaemia in February this year.

The couple, who live in Spring Lane
in Canterbury, had initially taken Gracie to hospital as they were
worried about her heavy and fast breathing.

They had also discovered a few
spots on her body.

Doctors sent them home with
antibiotics to treat what they believed to be a viral
infection.

Only hours later they were woken by
Gracie’s high pitched screaming and when they went to her, her tiny
body was black and blue.

Worried, Stephanie and Liam took
her back to hospital, where all medics could do was make her
comfortable.

Stephanie, 21, a nail technician,
said: "It killed her within four hours. She was a normal, healthy
baby and then in a blink of an eye she was gone.

"It is every parent’s worst
nightmare and no one ever thinks it will happen to them. We were
devastated and there were points where we were suicidal and didn’t
want to be here any more.

"Me and Liam had wanted children
for a long time, and to lose her was the end of our world."

Stephanie and Liam, who met at
Canterbury High School and plan to marry next year, are now putting
all their efforts into a week-long awareness campaign in
Canterbury, and helped to hand out information leaflets at its
launch at Asda in Sturry Road on Monday.

Along with their family, they have
also raised £7,000 for Meningitis UK, to help find a vaccine for
the illness.

Liam, 22, said: "We are here to
help make people more aware of the symptoms.

"As first-time parents, being told
by the hospital that she was fine settled our minds, but we would
urge every worried parent to ask doctors to double-check and run
more tests.

"Being aware of the symptoms can
help this, we now know them like the back of our hands, and we want
to get more people talking about them."

After losing Gracie, Stephanie
found out she was pregnant again, and the couple look forward to
welcoming a second daughter into the world in three months.