On August 19th 2024, I sadly lost my dad very unexpectedly to sepsis.

On August 14th my dad and mum set off on their yearly holiday to Cyprus to enjoy two weeks of sunshine. 5 days later my Dad passed away in the Blue Medical Centre, Pafos.

Everything seemed to be a normal holiday until suddenly it wasn't. The only thing my dad complained about was pulling his side when he lifted the suitcases off of the conveyer belt when they landed in Pafos airport, nothing a heat patch wouldn't be able to fix! So we all thought anyway..

Up until the 17th August, my Dad was so full of life, enjoying the sunshine, sipping on a beer by the poolside, it just doesn't make sense how one moment someone can be there absolutely fine and 24 hours later they're gone.

On the morning of August 18th, he turned to my mum and said 'Amanda I need to go home'. My mum was confused by this but went to go speak to the hotel staff about sorting out some arrangements to come home early. My mum had been gone for a maximum of 45 minutes, when she returned to my dad, he had gone into a state of being oblivious to everything and everyone around him. He couldn't stand, he couldn't communicate, nothing. He was then rushed in an ambulance to Blue Medical Centre. Once there he was immediately put onto a saline drip and given antibiotics to help cure whatever was attacking his immune system.

Over the course of the next couple of hours he went through multiple tests and had various blood tests as liquid had started to develop around his heart and his organs had started to shut down as he was fighting a major infection.

After being in the medical centre a couple of hours the doctors managed to get his heart rate back down to a standard rate, but 30 minutes later, it was back up sky high. Although myself, sister and brother was only a phone call away, my mum was there by herself watching her husband slip away with no answer to what was wrong with him, it was the scariest thing she had ever gone through in her life. It was even scarier that no one could explain to her how this was happening to someone that was perfectly healthy less than 24 hours before. How can someone's organs just suddenly shut down?

At 5pm, the medical staff told my mum visiting hours was over and to go back to the hotel and return in the morning. By this point he had been in the medical centre 7 hours. She called the hospital before she went to bed that night, around 11pm and she had then been informed he had been put onto oxygen to help him with his breathing, but still she wasn't allowed to return to see him until the following morning.

At 1.10am, August 19th, 15 hours after he entered the medical center, my mum received a phone call to say my dad, her husband had passed away and there was nothing more they could do to save him.

Myself, sister, brother and uncle all flew out the following day to be with my mum and to bring my dad home. To this day we are all still in complete shock of how and why this has happened.

We have been told since his passing, he died from sepsis, but what infection caused it is still unconfirmed.

I'm honouring my Dad by taking on a Sky Dive on what would have been his 64th Birthday in memory of him and to raise as much awareness of sepsis as possible.

Sepsis is one of the most unspoken about causes of death throughout the world today and needs to be spoken about more. Everyone needs to be made aware of earlier symptoms of sepsis so this doesn't happen or continue to happen to anyone else and their families.

Together we can stand up to sepsis.