“Simon was a happy little boy full of fun. I miss him every second of every day.”
Diane’s 21-month-old-son Simon fell ill in January 1977 with meningococcal septicaemia, sadly losing his life to the disease.
Simon would have been 50 this year. To this day the family all talk about Simon, even though his brothers and sister never met him.
There was such a lack of understanding about meningitis back then that detectives came to interview Diane following Simon’s death. Fortunately Diane, living in Bourne in Lincolnshire at the time but now in Northampton, found a friend in Meningitis Now, as she tells us here.
“Our lovely little boy Simon was poorly. He was crying a lot and had a temperature. I took him to the doctors who said it was probably a virus.
“Later that evening he developed a rash, so I thought it was measles. By this time he was calling out, ‘Mummy, Mummy’.
Kept saying his name
“We called the doctor and he came out. Simon kept stopping breathing. I kept saying his name and then the doctor sent me upstairs. Some 30 minutes later he came upstairs with a syringe and said, ‘I'm giving you an injection.’ I replied ‘will it harm my baby?’. He said; ‘Are you pregnant?’ and when I said ‘Yes’ he replied, ‘I’m glad you told me, you would have lost that one as well.’
“That's how I found out our little Simon had died.
“The next morning the police turned up to take him away. Because he died before the ambulance arrived the doctor left him on the couch all night. Fortunately, our friends were staying and sat with him.
“The police asked me, ‘Did you punch him or kick him? What did you do?’
Made to feel like a criminal
“I felt like a criminal because he had septicaemia; he had bruising. They actually thought I had killed him, I felt terrible. The way I was treated stays with me always.
“When we went for the post-mortem results and found out it was meningococcal septicaemia I never even got an apology from them. I live with that every day.
“Simon was a happy little boy full of fun. I miss him every second of every day. We had lots of fun together. I always remember the first time he walked. It was a Thursday evening and we were watching Top of the Pops. He just stood up and, laughing, he practically ran across the room.
“I first found out about the charity when I saw a lady with a yellow box collecting. I walked over and spoke to her. The next day this charity, Meningitis Trust as it was called then (the forerunner of Meningitis Now) got in touch. They came to visit me and have helped me so much ever since. I wish Simon was here. Let's hope a cure comes soon. Miss and love you always my darling son Simon.”
