This year we chose to support Group B Strep Support as our chosen charity for 2019.

Please donate anything you can, and if you would like tickets to attend the event then please contact Emma on recruitment.surrey@platinumcareuk.co.uk

This is a charity that is close to a member of the team, after her newborn baby contracted Strep B.

Monika has shared her story in a hope to help raise awareness to new mothers and prevent any more newborns contracting Strep B.

“It all started with him crying all day long and he wouldn’t settle at all, he refused to have his milk. His hands and feet were cold but as it was winter, I didn’t see this as a sign that something was seriously wrong with him. As I already having one boy I thought he was just having a bad tummy, not in million years did I think that a few hours later he will end up on life support machines in a paediatric intensive care unit !

When he finally settled and stop crying, I thought that because he wasn’t sleeping all day, he’s just really tired and snoring, but little did I know that his lungs were being attacked by step B and those snoring noises, was him struggling to breath!

He very quickly became pale in his face, he was staring without any movements, he became floppy and I seriously thought he will not survive ! It was all happening very quickly, without even thinking we jumped into the car and drove to A&E! I ran to the reception and shouted to the lady that my 4 week old baby is struggling to breathe! It felt like hours till the nurse called out my name. From then everything happened so fast.

I remember standing in the middle of the room surrounded by probably 12 people – doctors, nurses, consultants ! Everyone was giving me so many questions and all I wanted them to do was to save my boy! They had to put him to sleep and he had machines breathing for him.

A picture I will never forget as in that moment I was asking myself “why me, why my boy”? After a few hours he has been transported to intensive care in Southampton. I didn’t know he was affected by strep B till the day after when the tests showed he had got sepsis. His infection marks were around 177 which a baby at his age should have only around 10.

He was given antibiotics and I had to wait 3 days to find out if he will be able to breathe on his own again. I never forget the day when they took the ring out from his mouth and we had to wait at least 4 hours to find out if he can manage without any help. And he did!

That moment when he opened his big blue eyes was like he was born again, I held him so strongly and cried for hours and hours. He end up being on antibiotics for 5 weeks, he had numerous lumper punctures, CT scans, heart echoes, many many injections but now 9 months later he is one happy, strong and most of all healthy boy! Yes I am scared for life and I still wish I could just wrap him in cotton wool, but I know he is our little soldier 🙏🏼”

Group B Streptococcus is the UK's most common cause of life-threatening infection in newborn babies and of meningitis in babies under age 3 months. On average in the UK, at least-two babies a day develop a group B Strep infection -one baby a week dies from their GBS infection, and-one baby a week survives with long-term disabilities – physical, mental or both.Yet most group B Strep infections are preventable. Group B Strep Support informs families & health professionals about group B Strep to save tiny lives.