In September 2000 I gave birth to a beautiful baby girl. She was my third child and we were so happy to welcome her into our lives. We called her Llio Nansi.

I knew something wasn't right at the hospital. She wasn't feeding as well as her big brothers had, and she was really lethargic. I was assured that this was totally fine though. I had been a traumatic breech birth with forceps so it was to be expected. I was told that most breech babies are a bit quiet for the first couple of days. After all the checks were done we were discharged home the day after she was born.

I woke up the next day having not been woken once in the night. Llio was awake, just staring into space, but she kind of smiled at me, so we went downstairs. I told my husband that I was going try and give her a feed, but that I wanted to call the doctor as I wasn't happy about her not waking up in the night. I put her down in the lounge and changed her nappy. She looked me straight in the eyes and smiled, and when her daddy passed the door, she turned and smiled at him too. I left her on the changing mat while I went to the kitchen to get breakfast for my boys.

When I went back to the lounge about ten minutes later I picked Llio up. She was not breathing and she was completely floppy. I screamed at Steve to call an ambulance and for what seemed like hours I did my best to get her breathing and find a pulse. The ambulance and doctor arrived quickly, but there was nothing they could do. Llio's life was over just 42 hours after it began.

After the post mortem revealed that the cause of death was pneumonia caused by a strep B infection we were still none the wiser...What the hell was strep B? Why did nobody pick up on the symptoms she was so clearly displaying? Now, almost 17 years later, I'm absolutely devastated to see that a huge proportion of the UK still does not know about this mostly preventable killer. Pregnant women are not offered the test, and most don't even know about strep B! Worst of all, one baby a week dies of a strep B infection...that's 52 families a year facing the devastation of losing a child.

My aim, by running 12 marathons in the year Llio would have been 18, is to raise awareness. If someone reads my story, and as a result a pregnant woman gets tested and is treated then it will be worth it. Ultimately I'd like to see EVERY pregnant woman tested for strep B as a matter of course...they test for almost everything else after all!

Group B Streptococcus is the UK's most common cause of life-threatening infection in newborn babies and of meningitis in babies under age 3 months. On average in the UK, at least-two babies a day develop a group B Strep infection -one baby a week dies from their GBS infection, and-one baby a week survives with long-term disabilities – physical, mental or both.Yet most group B Strep infections are preventable. Group B Strep Support informs families & health professionals about group B Strep to save tiny lives.