Lily Knott
Aged 19 days
Survivor of Strep B meningitis and septicaemia
Gary Knott, from Wolverhampton, decided to fundraise in honour of his little girl Lily, who was left battling for her life at just 19 days old.
The youngster was struck down by a Group B Strep infection, which caused meningitis and septicaemia.
After a month of constant treatment, Lily defied predictions and went on to make a full recovery - despite Gary and his wife Susan being told to expect the worst.
Lily, now three, miraculously suffered from no after-affects and is preparing to start school in September.
He recalled the "horrific" events of April 2006, when Lily had only been home for 10 days after being born six weeks premature.
She showed no symptoms other than being a bit fluey and jaundice.
Lily would sleep in her parents' rooms and wake them up wanting a bottle, until one morning when she was silent.
Gary explained: "We went over to Lily's Moses basket and found her grey and lifeless. I thought she was dead but there was very shallow breathing.
"We managed to wake her up and she started vomiting. We took her straight to the doctor, who wasn't sure what was wrong but told us to bring her back in two hours.
"We decided we couldn't take any risks so took Lily straight to Stafford Hospital. They said we'd done the right thing because she was seriously ill. We feared the worst."
Doctors gave Lily antibiotics straight away, which Gary believes saved her life.
She started having seizures and was put on 24 hour supervision to make sure she didn't stop breathing.
A specialist team came to transfer her to Stoke on Trent Hospital, where a lumber puncture was carried out to test for meningitis.
Gary said: "We were warned she might not make the night. When tests confirmed it was meningitis we knew it was bad.
"I had heard of meningitis but didn't know what it was at the time. They started pumping her full of drugs and all we could do was hope for the best."
As Lily began to improve, she was fed milk through her nose and eventually she was able to breath on her own.
After being transferred back to Stafford, a scan revealed she had a shadow on her brain which doctors feared was a sign of brain damage.
But a later scan revealed the shadow had disappeared and Lily was discharged - much to her family's amazement.
Gary said: "We were emotionally drained. To hear she had been discharged with no obvious complications was absolutely wonderful.
"You wouldn't believe she'd been through all that if you saw her now. She's a miracle."
Group B streptococcus, also known as GBS, is the most common cause of severe infection in newborn babies in the UK.
Up to 90 per cent of GBS infections in babies occur in the first six days of life, with around 10 per cent of GBS infections developing after the baby is 6 days old.
This is referred to as 'late-onset' GBS, which usually causes meningitis with septicaemia - as was the case with Lily.
MeningitisUK · Registered Charity No.1076774