Two weeks after I brought my riplets home, they were back in hospital fighting for their lives

a already stirring, hungry for his bottle. s: So when he didn’t wake up, my tummy e lurched. I knew my boy and this wasn’t rt right.” She managed to rouse him but when she gave him his bottle, he just turned his head away. “I kept saying, ‘Come on, baby, take it’ but he just wasn’t happy. Then I noticed his nappy was dry – he wasn’t weeing. He looked so pale, too. Something wasn’t right.”

Lucy rang her health visitor in the morning and was told to take Billy straight to hospital.

Lucy says. “I was terrified. Thankfully, Mum was staying with us, so she stayed with the other children, while Jack and I rushed n I o

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n d. e n d as Billy to hospital. I kept praying that he would be OK.” Within 20 minutes of reaching the hospital in Oxford, Billy was being incubated and put into an induced coma. Lucy says: “I felt so helpless, I kept sobbing and begging doctors to tell me what was wrong. Eventually we were told that Billy had meningitis.”

An acute inflammation of the brain and spinal cord, meningitis can kill in hours.

Lucy says: “The word floored me. One minute he’d been fine, the next I was being told he had this potentially fatal illness.” Worse, because doctors didn’t know what type Billy had – viral or meningococcal – the couple were told to bring Buster and Cameron in to be tested. Lucy says: “I was so frightened. I kept thinking they couldn’t be ill too.”

But the doctors had been right. Shortly after arriving, Buster became seriously ill and was put into a coma like his brother. Tests showed that they both had viral meningitis.

Cameron was treated for suspected meningitis before doctors discovered he actually had sepsis, a response to infection that can cause organ failure.

Lucy says: “The day before, I’d been singing and playing with my happy babies. Now, suddenly, they were fighting for their lives.”

As the hospital did not have enough oxygen for three babies, Cameron was transferred to Stoke Mandeville. “It was heartbreaking. I felt so torn, as I couldn’t be in two places at once. If I was sitting with Billy, I’d be sobbing for Cameron, praying he knew Mummy was thinking about him. The hospitals were a 45-minute drive apart, so it was a logistical nightmare.”

But the boys fought back. After five days, Cameron was allowed home and, four days later, his brothers followed. Lucy says: “I wept with relief. Doctors couldn’t tell me why all three had become ill but all I cared about was that they were home.

“I felt like we were starting all over again. Now we could become a proper family. Of course, I was still worried and checked them constantly but, after this scare, they thrived.”

Billy, Buster and Cameron are four in July and Lucy says: “Life is never dull with them. They’ve all got white blond hair and blue eyes. They were a bit slow in hitting their milestones, like walking and talking, but when they were two, they got discharged from hospital care.

“The only thing you’d notice about them now is that they all wear glasses.

“They are so close and I love seeing that. They’re all very different too. Buster is my cuddly boy, while Billy obviously knows somehow that he’s the eldest, as he always wants to be in charge. Cameron is sensitive and loves a routine. They’re all very cheeky, though, and play well together.

“They love doing puzzles together and dressing up as superheroes. Billy is always Batman, Buster is Superman and Cameron is Spider-man.

“That’s exactly how I see them – my very own superheroes, the terrific trio.”

For more information about meningitis, please see meningitisnow.org

Billy, Buster and Cameron in hospital