Corrie sepsis story saved the life of my little girl

The week started full of nerves ahead of the results of my MRI scan and blood test Coronation Street fan Aoife Duffy saved her baby after the soap‘s storyline helped her spot signs of sepsis. Symptoms of the deadly blood condition are not easy to pick up, so the 22-year-old student from Dungannon, Northern Ireland, is determined to raise awareness

It’s a fact of life that some weeks are great and others not so. The challenge we all have is to make the not-so-good ones into better weeks with our attitude and actions and really make the most of the good ones if and when they come along.

This week started with me full of nerves. I had the results of a full body MRI scan and blood test and the last couple had not been so good. I was also to find out if I had won an award and then go on to Wales to do some Arctic training for a race next year.

First the award on Tuesday. I was so humbled and honoured to receive the Just Giving endurance fundraiser of the year title, presented by my Prostate Cancer UK hero Jeff Stelling.

Just to be nominated was amazing but to win, something else. They all deserved to win. Thank you everyone who voted for me or if you have sponsored my efforts. See justgiving.com/fundraising/kevin-webber7

Wednesday was my medical results. The blood results are the best ever, the scan showed that the main tumour had shrunk slightly and there is no progression with new cancers.

I am in Brecon, Wales, this weekend meeting other positive endurance athletes training for the Likeys 6633 Arctic Ultra in March. Likeys is a fab independent shop that really cares for outdoor enthusiasts. They assist and inspire so many like me to dream big and live their dreams every day.

Their huge wall of fame of ordinary people doing extraordinary things is testimony to how many people they have helped. See likeys.com

Why don’t you dream big today and then find a way to live it just like me?

Until next week Kev It was when Eabha slept for 20 hours that the alarm bells began ringing in my head. She was just four months old. Normally she’d have her regular naps in the day and then her night sleep from 11pm until 9am. This was different. She just didn’t want to wake up in the morning. She wanted to sleep. She woke for her bottle and went straight back to sleep again.

When my daughter first fell unwell, I had thought she was teething. Then, when she started to get an upset stomach and was vomiting, I thought it could have been a stomach bug.

She’s usually such a happy little baby but she was very cranky and wouldn’t snap out of it, which made me realise something was wasn’t quite right.

It was her lengthy sleep that gave me flashbacks to those heartbreaking scenes of young Jack Webster in Corrie over the summer. I never miss an episode and vividly remembered watching the soap after Jack grazed his knee playing football.

After his accident, Jack kept complaining about feeling unwell and being tired. His sister Sophie was ignoring all the symptoms.

Jack was diagnosed with sepsis and had his leg amputated. The scenes were upsetting to watch.

To my horror, I began to fear my baby had the same condition.

We went to see her gran the next day and Eabha was very pale, another sign of sepsis. I knew I had to act, so I rushed her to hospital. They sent us down to the children’s A&E department.

At first, it was all quite calm while we were waiting but the minute they saw her, everyone jumped. It went from zero to 10 in the space of 15 minutes.

At first, staff thought it could be meningitis, which was really scary. They gave her a urine test by putting a pad in her nappy, which revealed she had a urine infection.

After they got the test results back, they seemed to go mad.

There was a small indication meningitis bacteria was present and they told me even though they didn’t know it was meningitis, they had to treat it because otherwise it would be too late.

I couldn’t even stay when they were injecting her with lifesaving medication. I had to get her aunty to hold her, it was that horrible. Eventually they were able put all of Eabha’s symptoms together and we were told she had sepsis.

And the first thing I thought of was Jack in Corrie having his leg amputated. I feared if my daughter survived the same thing would happen to her.

But thankfully she made a full recovery and my partner Adam and I were able to take her home after three days at Craigavon Area Hospital. I couldn’t be more grateful that I had watched Corrie’s sepsis storyline. I’m so relieved that Adam and I love it and we rarely miss an episode.

I had even done a bit of research into sepsis after watching Jack’s emotional scenes – I’d been readi purely

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