Update – 21 February 2019: Melissa today received her award from Prince Charles at Buckingham Palace. Take a look at the Royal Family’s tweet here, congratulating Melissa and recognising her tireless work raising awareness of sepsis.

UKST Ambassador and Spokesperson Melissa Mead will be awarded an MBE in 2019 for her services to raising awareness of sepsis.

Since the death of her son William, who lost his life to sepsis just after his first birthday in December 2014, Melissa has campaigned tirelessly to raise awareness of sepsis all over the country, giving talks, attending conferences, appearing on national TV and even creating an awareness-raising video seen by millions of people.

Melissa Mead comments: “I am humbled and grateful to be amongst so many inspirational people who receive an honour of this nature. I campaign to raise awareness of sepsis in the hope that other families can avoid treading the path that we do, since the avoidable death of our son William. The best thank you that I receive is contact from someone to say that because of my work and that of the UK Sepsis Trust, their loved one’s life has been saved. Sadly, I am unable to pass this honour on to William posthumously so I will be dedicating this to him. It is his love that gives me the courage, passion and conviction to put one foot in front of the other. He is my hero, and he lives on in the hearts of the many thousands of lives he’s saved.

Dr Ron Daniels, CEO of the UK Sepsis Trust comments: “It’s fantastic that Melissa’s services to raising awareness of sepsis are being recognised in this way. We’re incredibly grateful to Melissa for all the work she has done in partnership with the Trust to raise awareness of this devastating condition; her capacity to turn her grief into something positive is an inspiration to us all.

William was sent away multiple times
by doctors- we need loved ones to trust their instincts and we need health professionals to listen to them. Of the 250,000 people who lose their lives to sepsis 25,000 are children but so many of these deaths are avoidable. Better awareness could save thousands of lives every year in the UK.

Melissa’s dedication and endless hard work in William’s memory will save lives and save other parents suffering the devastation of losing a child. We could not be more grateful to her in raising awareness of sepsis and we are delighted her work and William’s legacy have been honoured.”