A mother who lost her five-year-old daughter to Strep A infection in March is hoping she can raise awareness of the infection.
Kate Colum from Strokestown, Co Roscommon, was living life to the full before she lost her fight against the bacterial infection three months ago.
"Kate was born with Down syndrome but she was always very well, and she was never sick a day in her life. She was never in hospital and we never had to worry about her health. This came completely out of the blue," explains her mother Claire.
Like most five-year-olds, Kate was a huge fan of Peppa Pig. She loved ice cream and bubbles.
She enjoyed being outside in her wellies and loved running after the sheep on the family farm.
"Kate filled up every room she went into, and you can see in all the pictures, every picture, she's beaming. She was the life and soul of everything and was the centre of our world," Claire said.
Kate loved her brothers, Matthew who is older and Daniel who is younger.
"We were a family of five and we were very happy. Kate loved to be at home. All she ever wanted was to be at home. Everywhere we went she'd have a good time, but she wanted to go home. She was happy at home, playing with her brothers. We had a very normal happy life but that has changed a lot," Claire said.
In March of this year, Kate became unwell and Claire decided to call an ambulance.
She said she felt something was not right so she made the call and they were both taken to Sligo University Hospital.
Read more:
What is Strep A and what should people look out for?
"She was at home here on the Wednesday and she wasn't herself. She was a little bit off, and I was keeping an eye on her. She had a little bit of a temperature and into Wednesday evening, I felt that there was something more to it.
"It seemed to be affecting her a bit more. So quite quickly, we made the decision. We need to ring an ambulance."
Within two days, Kate become seriously ill and passed away at the hospital on 31 March. The suddenness of her passing left everyone in shock.
Claire said: "I didn't realise how quick things would deteriorate. Things became more serious, and it became a fight for Kate's life. Kate fought very hard all night and she had a team around her that second night and that team fought so hard for Kate as well and if that was enough, she would still be here.
"She was a very strong little girl and she had worked hard all her life and she was so strong and determined and that just shone through that night.
"I am so proud of how hard she did fight that night to stay with us but it just wasn't to be, and it was too much for her little body and she had to go off to heaven."
In the days that followed, the family learned that Kate had Strep A, a bacterial infection that, according to the Health Service Executive website is usually mild and can be treated with antibiotics.
It also states that Strep A infections can develop into a more serious invasive Group A Strep (iGAS) infection, though this is rare. This is what happened to Kate.
The HSE issued an alert last December to all schools and creches, advising that children who are feeling unwell should stay at home in a bid to stop the spread of infections.
The HSE warned that children should not return to school until the symptoms are gone, amid concerns about Group A Strep.
Claire recalls receiving the alert and researching the infection and its symptoms online, never once thinking it would come to her own door.
She said: "So Kate had Strep A and if you don't get antibiotics and if it's affecting you like it was affecting Kate it gets more severe and it becomes invasive and that means it gets into parts of the body that it's not supposed to be and that's when it becomes really really severe and very quickly it turns into sepsis.
"I suppose what I really want to say is that Strep A is not rare. It's very, very common. Anybody can have it, and it's a sore throat, it's scarlet fever. So many children have it and so many people have it. What is rare is that it's not diagnosed and it's even more rare that it turns into invasive Group A Strep.
"Time is key here, there's no second chance and if you want to save a life, you get treatment quick, you get antibiotics and you get them quick and the quicker you get them, the better the outcome.
"I want parents to remember there are no second chances. Keep Kate's Strep A in your mind, keep Kate in your mind because she was full of beans and full of life.
"She was never sick a day in her life and this came and took her life and took it very quickly so there's no time to waste."
Pain 'very raw'
Life without Kate will never be the same for the Colum family.
At their home, there are reminders of the five-year-old everywhere.
Small figurines of Peppa Pig, Mummy Pig and George are propped up against a smiling picture of Kate.
Family photos of happy times adorn the house. For Claire and her husband Matthew, the pain of losing their daughter is very raw.
Claire said: "We have our two boys and they're fantastic but they don't get the parents Kate got, they get grieving parents who are going to be grieving for the rest of our lives.
"We just keep going for them and I suppose as the days go on, we know Kate won't be coming back and I miss her. I haven't seen her for a long time now and that's just how I feel. I suppose the finality of it is hard to take.
"I miss her smile. I miss her sounds, I miss her face. I miss everything about her. We look back at videos and pictures and they're lovely, but it's painful because you see the life she had and the life that we've lost."
In three months since the family lost Kate, there have been family occasions she has missed out on and this has been particularly hard.
She said: "We had Matthew's communion a few weeks after Kate went to heaven. We had the bouncy castle, and an ice-cream van and Kate would have loved that.
"The kids had a great time, but we kept thinking Kate should be here and that's your thought in every happy moment.
"She should be starting in Ballyfeeney National School in September. Matthew went to Ballyfeeney and we were so happy she was following along after him. There are all the big things you think of but there's a lot of little things. There's no tooth fairy coming. There's no learning to cycle a bike. There's none of that, you know, that's never going to happen for us.
"You know I can hear her all morning in my head and she's just saying to me 'Mammy, tell them, tell them what happened to me. Tell them what happened so that this doesn't happen anyone else'?
"Tell them what happened. That's why I feel I have to do this because there's no parent in this world that wants to be sitting where I am today.
"There's nothing that's going to bring Kate back to us but everything we do now, we have to honour her memory. We have to live for her and the life she couldn't live."
