Mr. Joseph Hughes:

Our campaign is based mostly on social media. We also go to schools and colleges to give the sepsis awareness talk and we have attended a couple of business events. We will go anywhere to spread the life-saving message. At least 30 people have been in touch in the past five years to say their lives or that of a loved one was saved because of Lil Red’s Legacy Sepsis Awareness Campaign. They knew the signs and symptoms, knew to get themselves to a hospital and had the confidence to ask whether it could be sepsis. That question saved their lives and they would not have known about it otherwise.

I am not taking away from the HSE's work, but its representatives told us over and over that they were at the National Ploughing Championships spreading awareness. Where I live, however, nobody goes to the National Ploughing Championships. I was then told that the material is available online, but not everybody is computer literate or has access to a computer or Wi-Fi. We have told the HSE we think it would be a better use of money, energy and time to go to schools, clinics and sports clubs, as we do, and give the sepsis awareness talk there because that is where it is needed. Thirty people's lives have been changed because of what we do.

I would not like to mention names, but one person whose young child was taken into hospital said they were fobbed off and told it was just a stomach bug. They then got a second opinion and it turned out to be sepsis. As we now know, sepsis is very time dependent, which is why awareness is so important to ensure early recognition and rapid treatment. I cannot overemphasise that. The HSE has e-learning and its staff are expected to be up to scratch on what they need to do, but this information needs also to be in parents' hands. Who knows anyone's child better than their mother or father or guardian? The information should be in the public's hands.