Mia's Legacy - The Brightest Star

Yesterday, we held a ‘Bake a cake at work’ day at Pegasus     Lots of people baked and others provided shop bought cakes and we raised a grand total of £147.54 for the Group B Strep Support charity.   This was pushed over the £200 mark by a private donation by the partner of one of our employees. Just as importantly though we carried on raising awareness and I learnt that first time mum-to-be Natalie Green who works in our Support department had attended a number of antenatal classes and had not been made aware of GBS or the tests available privately.   Everyone in the office was full of cake by the end of the day but perhaps the biggest plus point of the day was Natalie’s face when she was told that the test was not routinely available in the UK as part of standard antenatal care but is in many other countries and is available to purchase privately for £35 and it is more accurate than the standard test offered by a very small number of NHS Trusts throughout the UK. A good

Sunday was the third Mother’s Day since Mia passed away – previously Amanda didn’t even want to celebrate it which I always viewed as her right even though I knew her sons and daughter would still want to celebrate it with her. This year was a bit different, mainly because of the safe arrival of Theo – Amanda had a lovely day, lots of presents from her children and we had Sunday Lunch at the local pub followed by a couple of drinks with a couple of friends and their children. Hopefully Mother’s Day from this point onwards will be something that Amanda views as worthwhile celebrating.  I will always make sure that Amanda receives something from Mia on Mothering Sunday if I didn't we would view it as the horrid Group B Strep infection winning our battle.

Never one to lose out on an opportunity to discuss Group B Strep with the local community, we discussed the possibility of Theo’s birth being covered in the local papers such as Northants Evening Telegraph, Market Harborough Mail and the Northampton Chronical & Echo. During Amanda’s pregnancy with Theo it was very evident that the Group B Strep awareness levels had dramatically increased at Kettering General Hospital in the two years since Mia passed away.   We felt that it was correct that we should praise them publically given the criticism we had placed upon them before. The journalist Sam was very interested in continuing the Group B Strep storyline created in Northamptonshire by Mia's death. http://www.harboroughmail.co.uk/news/mail-news/desborough-couple-successfully-give-birth-two-years-after-tragically-losing-daughter-to-group-b-strep-1-7216291