We’d received devastating news about our little boy. But William was about to surprise everyone. By Gemma Reckless, 34
I glanced out across the garden at three little figures, and I smiled. My little boy William was charging around trailing his little sister Georgia and our dog in his wake.
William, three, was a boisterous toddler who loved being outside, and he was a total chatterbox.
But one day, as I drove him home from nursery, I noticed he was strangely quiet.
Then he was sick.
Thinking he’d caught a bug at nursery, I put him to bed.
My husband Mike was away, so I spent the weekend bringing William cups of squash and checking his temperature.
By Sunday, I was exhausted and, when Mike came home to Nottingham, he sent me to bed for a rest.
But in the early hours of Monday morning, he woke me up and said, ‘I’m worried about William.’
‘So I am, something isn’t right,’ I agreed.
He’d had colds before, but this was different.
Worried, we called the non-emergency service 111 and we were told to take him to A&E.
‘I’m sure he’s fine, I’ll be back in an hour,’ I said to Mike, leaving him at home to look after Georgia.
But, in hospital, the nurse who examined William looked concerned.
She said: ‘I’m just going to take you to see a doctor.’
As William sat on a bed, a doctor looked him over.
Then, the room got busier and busier as different doctors and nurses appeared.
‘Is everything OK?’ I asked a nurse.
‘Can your husband come and be with you?’ she replied.
My heart began to thud in my chest and I said, ‘Is it serious?’
She explained that doctors believed William had sepsis, a condition in which the body has an extreme response to an infection, causing it to attack its own tissue and organs.
‘This is life threatening,’ she explained as my hands began to shake.
'We can talk about that when we know he’s going to live'
I looked across at William, happily chatting to the doctors, and it was hard to believe he was so ill but, when Mike arrived at the hospital, doctors revealed more worrying news.
They needed to put William into an induced coma.
We were transferred to Queen’s Medical Centre in Nottingham but when we got there, William went into cardiac arrest.
I watched, terrified, as doctors began to pump his chest.
Thankfully, they were able to revive him, but the next few days were touch and go.
William’s hands and feet started to turn black and doctors wrapped them in nappies to keep them warm.
Then one day, Mike and I were led into a room where a doctor told us, ‘It’s likely that William will suffer some limb loss, perhaps just his toes, possibly more of his legs.’
I couldn’t take it in.
William was still in a coma so I said, ‘We can talk about that when we know he’s going to live.’
In time, William was brought round and, after two months of antibiotics, he seemed more like himself.
But the sepsis had already caused so much damage to his body and, to stop it from spreading further, the doctors needed to take drastic action. William’s legs below the knees and some of his fingers would have to be amputated.
It was devastating, but I knew it had to be done to save his life.
As doctors prepared him for surgery, I kissed his head. Then, as he was wheeled away, I tried to put on a brave face.
For the next few hours, Mike and I paced the corridors.
Then finally, we were called into William’s room.
As I walked in, my gaze went straight to the flat sheet where his legs had been.
Even though we knew it was coming, it was still a huge shock to see part of his little body had gone.
‘Hello darling, how are you?’ I asked.
‘Mummy, can I have a cuddle?’ William said as he burst into tears.
It must have been so scary but it wasn’t long before his cheeky smile returned.
Back at home, we were amazed by how quickly he adapted and months later, he was fitted with a set of prosthetic legs.
‘Georgia, come back!’ he’d shout as he chased his sister around the garden.
As the years went on, he was just like any other little boy his age.
Then, as it came up to the fourth anniversary of the amputation, we had an idea to raise some money for the hospital that had saved William’s life.
‘I could do a walk for them,’ William, now eight, suggested.
We decided he’d walk and cycle four miles to mark the four years since his amputation.
It was further than he’d ever walked before, but he was determined.
'I'm so proud of you'
We started training using Mike’s old Fitbit to track William’s progress.
‘Come on Mum!’ William teased as I trotted along behind his adapted bike.
On the day of the walk, family and friends turned out to cheer William along.
At points, he was tired but he was a fighter and he just kept going.
‘I did it!’ he said as we crossed the finish line.
‘I’m so proud of you!’ I cheered.
He raised over £8000 for Queen’s Medical Centre, and won the Just Giving Young Fundraiser of the Year award.
We attended the ceremony and I watched with pride as my little boy accepted his award.
I feel so lucky our little fighter is still here with us – and it’s down to the doctors and nurses who saved him. We will never be able to thank them enough.
• Find out more about William’s fundraising, visit: justgiving.com/page/williamsbig4