Four words can save a life: Could it be sepsis?
I learned this the hardest way. My daughter Lucetta, just 17, had started her first year at university when she fell suddenly and critically ill. When we found her in her student bedroom, her blood pressure had collapsed to 48/24 — a level that is life-threatening.
Thanks to the quick action of paramedics and NHS clinicians, she survived. But only because the right people asked the right question in time.
Sepsis is not rare. It kills more people in the UK each year than breast, bowel and prostate cancer combined. Yet symptoms can look like flu or food poisoning. It can strike the very young, the elderly — or as in my daughter’s case, someone healthy and active, away from home for the first time.
That is why awareness matters.
I am proud that Kingston Hospital has been a national leader in the “Could it be Sepsis?” campaign, training staff to ask the question, raising awareness among patients, and embedding this lifesaving habit across the NHS. Every time it is asked, it can be the difference between life and death.
For me, the story did not end with recovery. Lucetta went back to her studies, completed her engineering degree, and now works in technology. I, in turn, wanted to give something back. That is why I became a volunteer in Kingston Hospital A&E and later a Governor of the Trust. My journey into NHS policy and governance started not in a boardroom, but in a moment of crisis — and in gratitude to the doctors and nurses who gave me back my daughter.
The lesson is simple: whether you are a parent, a student, a carer, or a clinician — always ask the question.
Could it be sepsis?
You might just save a life.
https://sepsistrust.org/70-parliamentarians-join-harry-redknapp-in-calling-for-greater-awareness-during-sepsis-awareness-month/
On Tuesday 2nd September, 70 parliamentarians attended an event in Parliament ahead of World Sepsis Day on 13th September and pledged their support for improving sepsis awareness, following calls from the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Sepsis and The UK Sepsis Trust (UKST).
Attendees of the APPG drop-in session included ‘Bionic Peer’ Lord Mackinlay, who is a quadruple amputee following his own battle with sepsis in 2023, and UKST ambassador Harry Redknapp, who’s leading UKST’s Sepsis Awareness Month campaign. Those in attendance pledged their support of UKST’s Sepsis Awareness Month campaign, ‘It’s Game On for Sepsis Awareness.’
