On the 3rd December 2022, after 2 days of having a cold, my previously fit and well 18 year old nephew became seriously unwell with sepsis and suffered severe respiratory failure in a matter of hours. He urgently required ECMO (Extra-Corporeal Membrane Oxygenation) to have a chance of survival. ECMO functions as an artificial lung machine, adding oxygen to the blood and removing waste carbon dioxide. There are only 6 centres across the UK who provide this treatment, but my nephew was too unstable to be transferred to one of these specialist centres.

The ECMO retrieval team from the Royal Brompton Hospital, therefore came to Swindon to initiate ECMO and stabilise him so that he could be transferred to London and receive this specialised, life-saving treatment. Because of the ECMO retrieval team and the ECMO team at the Royal Brompton ITU, they gave my nephew a chance of survival. These teams worked tirelessly to look after my nephew with upmost care and compassion, and we can not thank them enough for all did. Despite all of their efforts, and despite my nephew fighting so hard for over 3 weeks, he sadly passed away on Christmas Day.

You never expect that your young relative will ever need this team, but this shows that you never know what is around the corner, and it really can happen to everyone. In Ajay's memory, we want to raise money for this amazing team to help fund their outstanding, life-saving service. Veejay Bagga