Amazing women
The agony of losing a child drove these mums to demand legal changes
‘Every baby saved has made the battle worthwhile’
Joanne Thompson, 37, took her nine-month-old daughter Millie to nursery on 23 October 2012. Later that day, Millie choked to death on her lunch. Joanne lives in Stockport, Greater Manchester, with her sons Leo, seven, and Asher, five.
My first, perfect, happy baby was on her third day at nursery. That morning, I kissed Millie goodbye and went to my job as a surveyor. At 11.30am I received a call to say she’d been taken to hospital with breathing trouble. I headed straight to A&E and was led to a room where Millie was lying still and silent on a bed. My baby girl was dead.
The trauma was overwhelming. All her dad Dan and I knew was that she had choked on mashed potato at lunchtime. I watched the video of Millie’s final moments, my heart breaking all over again. At the inquest, the coroner returned a verdict of misadventure and said no one was to blame.
When the coroner said he was writing to the Government calling for paediatric first-aid training for all nursery staff, I felt a sudden sense of purpose. I would make this happen for Millie.
Dan and I set up Millie’s Trust at the end of 2012. Early the next year, we launched an online petition to make the training for all nursery staff compulsory. It went viral, gaining 103,000 signatures. Then I went after support from MPs and ministers. If a politician seemed a bit blasé, I’d say, ‘Imagine dropping your child at nursery and never seeing them alive again.’ I did my research before meetings, did a crash course in ‘government speak’ to argue my point, and used any and every legal ‘weapon’ I could.
Basically, I learnt how to get on people’s nerves and show them that I wasn’t going away.
There were low points, such as when helpful official contacts moved on. I had to understand financial limitations – but in the end all the effort paid off.
After a debate in Parliament in 2015, the Government announced that newly qualified preschool staff must have emergency paediatric first-aid training.
A special certificate called Millie’s Mark could be displayed by nurseries with gold-standard provision. I didn’t rest there, though.
I want every parent, their relatives and friends to have life-saving skills. Millie’s Trust provides first-aid courses at the lowest possible cost.
Every message from someone telling me their training saved a baby from dying like Millie makes the battle worthwhile. ✢ milliestrust.com
‘Something positive had to come out of our traged
