18th to 24th April is the week we all turn orange to raise awareness of neonatal herpes to help save babies' lives. Neonatal herpes (the cold sore virus in babies) is the cause of death of up to one baby every week in the UK yet often remains undiagnosed and untreated. The awareness and funds raised by GoOrange! are vital in making many more people aware of the dangers of the herpes virus in newborns and saving lives as a result.

Llewelyn “Llew” Tomos Griffiths our 20 month old son was diagnosed with HSV-type 1 meningitis (commonly known  as cold sore virus)  when he was 19 days old. To this day we are still so thankful for the staff at Noah’s Ark who saved our baby boy life. He was fortunate to receive the test and treatment within 18 hours of his admission. 3 weeks later we were able to bring our healthy baby boy home.

I was devastated to read Sarah and James De Malplaquet story. In 2018, they lost their baby boy Kit at just 13 days old. He never received the tests or treatments for HSV. I’m in complete awe of how they found the strength and courage to set up a charity - Kit Tarka in memory of their son to raise awareness of neonatal herpes. The charity would have and will continue to save the lives of many babies. 

This week as a family we will be wearing orange and thanks to my sister in law Natalie, she has organised ‘guess the number of orange smarties in a jar’ competition where there will be an opportunity to win a bag of orange themed goodies. If you would like to take a guess - please message me directly. It’s £2 a go. 

Thank you 

Angharad, Simon, Morgan and Llew xxx