I will be running the London marathon 2027 to raise awareness of Sepsis. I am doing this to make both my children proud and to share my experiences of Harrison’s story.

As many of you know, we welcomed our son Harrison Stanley Anderson Naylor on 06/02/25. Harrison is such a smiley happy baby and he did not give any signs that he was really poorly. On the 2nd March we took Harrison to hospital when we knew suspected something wasn’t right.

Harrison was treated at the time for suspected meningitis and sepsis. Harrison was fighting for his life. He endured such an ordeal for anyone- never mind a tiny baby- having to have several cannulas put in and 2 lumbar punctures. (We are just glad he won’t remember those, however it’ll never leave us). He received regular IV antibiotics every 3 hours for 4 days before we started to see an improvement and his lumbar puncture results came back- it wasn’t meningitis

As he started to make a recovery we learnt how close we came to losing our baby. He was diagnosed with sepsis and had to have a total of 7 days IV antibiotics and will have 6 monthly reviews with a consultant until he is 4 along side scans to monitor for any indication of kidney damage from the sepsis.

I personally did not realise how dangerous the condition is or how many people in the uk lose their lives to sepsis. It’s almost an invisible killer until too late, particularly in children. Harrison’s only symptoms were a slight rise in his temperature and him being alittle unsettled at night. I do not believe that there is enough awareness of the disease, which is something I want to change.

Harrison is now 17 months old. He is the most smiley happy little man and we know how truly lucky we are that he is with us. Sadly the reality is not all parents are as lucky as us and get to take their babies home. He is back to his happy self and enjoying time with his big sister Margot.

I want to raise money by completing the London Marathon. I am using this to help raise money for the sepsis research charity to help us better understand the disease and how we can treat it.

Sepsis Research FEAT is a registered charity (SC049399) and we are the UK’s only sepsis research charity.

Sepsis accounts for around 50,000 deaths in the UK every year - that's more than breast and bowel cancer combined.

We don't understand enough about sepsis and the biological processes that can lead to serious illness or even death. That is why we urgently need to increase funding:

- to raise awareness of sepsis

- for research: to understand the processes that lead to sepsis, to design effective treatments for it & to help save lives.