It’s our duty to help the NHS, by TV star who lost his daughter
Bafta-winner backs Mail’s call for volunteers
ACTOR Jason Watkins has a more complicated relationship with the NHS than most.
His two-year-old daughter died from sepsis in 2011 – after two visits to A&E and wrongly being diagnosed with croup.
But the TV and film star says he and wife Clara are still passionate supporters of the NHS, and are fully behind the Mail’s volunteer campaign.
In an exclusive interview, he said no individual was to blame, and described how a ‘broken system’ failed their daughter.
Embracing more volunteers in the NHS could help to avoid similar tragedies, he suggested, by ‘extending the net of people who care’.
He said: ‘Some might be surprised by how passionately I support the NHS. Our daughter Maude died on New Year’s Day 2011, when she was twoand-a-half years old, despite us taking her to our GP, then to A&E twice.
‘So many doctors were involved with her care, yet we were still sent home with her, being told she was suffering “a classic case of croup”. She actually had sepsis.
‘We put her to bed, and never saw her alive again.
‘I still defend the NHS to the hilt though, and feel it is our collective duty to think creatively about how we can make things better.’
The 52-year-old Bafta winner – who starred in the BBC’s A Very English Scandal earlier this year – has become the latest high-profile name to back the Mail’s campaign, which was launched at the beginning of December in partnership with Helpforce.
The recruitment drive for volunteers aims to fill important roles such as befriending patients, helping at mealtimes and reassuring families.
Prime Minister Theresa May and the Archbishop of Canterbury – as well as celebrities such as Claudia Winkleman and JK Rowling – have voiced support.
By last night a total of 24,055 readers had signed up, pledging a combined total of 1,366,704 hours in help and support.
After Maude’s death, the Watkins family have worked with Sepsis Trust UK to raise awareness of the potentially deadly infection, which the Mail has also extensively campaigned for.
Mr Watkins said this work has given them an insight into the NHS and areas that could be improved.
He reiterated that volunteers were no replacement for an adequately funded workforce but said the extra help would be ‘invaluable’.
He added: ‘As an actor I work in a creative industry, and this Mail campaign strikes me as a different approach, one that has required imagination, looking at the facts, and trying something new.
‘I think it’s a brilliant initiative. What it is doing is extending that net of people who care.’
He added that the NHS organised counselling for their older daughter Bessie, now 11, after Maude died, and ‘could not have been more supportive’ when his wife became pregnant with their son Gilbert, now six.
He said: ‘As much as the system failed us, the NHS has been there for us, as it should be, at other times of need.’
‘As an actor I work in a creative industry, and this Daily Mail campaign strikes me as a different approach, one that required imagination, looking at the facts, and trying something new. I think it’s a brilliant initiative Jason Watkins