Why this tot’s tragedy will not be in vain

COT DEATH Anne’s Sebastian We wouldn’t have wanted Alfie’s parents to do anything else, would we? They fought to the bitter end. Upheld everything it is to be a loving parent.

Sometimes the state seems it’s trying to undermine that most important parental quest – to protect their baby’s life.

And I, like Alfie’s parents, would fight like a tigress to protect any child of mine, because to lose one is the greatest pain on earth.

It happened to me in 1991 when my baby Sebastian died of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.

Doctors told me there were around 2,000 UK cot deaths a year and nothing could be done.

It took a lot of determination to find out something could be done – that there was hope.

As a result of my campaign, my child had not died in vain. And that is the point: none of these children die in vain. It is the indelible mark their short lives leave on us that makes children like Alfie so important.

STRENGTH

There have been so many in recent years whose battles for life have been played out in public – Stephen Sutton, Bradley Lowery, Charlie Gard.

Their parents’ determination, the doctors’ dedication and the outpouring of love, support and indignation from the public remind us of the good and the strength in the world. The collective grief we feel urges us on to find for better cures and care for those still living.

Doctors are trained to help those who can be helped, and understand when others are beyond help. In this case, they advised to switch off Alfie’s life support. The courts agreed.

But maybe for the next Alfie there will be a solution and the advice will be different.

One of my dearest friends is a top paediatrician kept awake at night many times by those children he could not save.

The sleepless nights of the doctors in Alfie’s case will ensure they continue to strive to save children like him in the future. And it is for this reason he neither lived, nor died, in vain.