Melanie Dix is the assistant manager of Great Barr Nursery School in the West Midlands. She speaks about the time when Kyle died as if it were yesterday. The memories are still raw and a look around the nursery shows that the meningitis message learnt from Kyle's tragic and sudden death is never far away.
'One of our children, little baby Kyle, was eight months old when he died from meningitis in March 2002. He came to the nursery in the morning and had a temperature so we sent him home. The next morning we got a call to say he had died,' says Melanie.
'The atmosphere in the nursery was numb. It was horrendous. Everyone was numb with shock. We didn't know what to do. We rang the NHS Helpline and then the Meningitis Trust and someone came along to speak to us and speak to the parents, to reassure everyone.'
'All the while the parents were coming in and we had to tell them what had happened,' continues Melanie. 'We had to phone children's parents and tell them. We were crying and they were crying. By the afternoon, most of the children had been taken home; we only had two or three left with us.
'The staff felt awful. We'd all held Kyle during the last day and all looked after him. We didn't understand the disease. We didn't know what to think. We even thought we might be infected in some way because we did not know any better.
'The Meningitis Trust came the next day with leaflets and symptoms cards and talked to us all. We started to understand more about the disease and that you can't catch it that easily. We sent an explanatory letter out to all the parents. Everyone mucked in to help answer the phones and to look after the children that did come. I lost count of the amount of times I said what had happened and people could not take it in, so I would have to repeat myself, over and over again.'
Our Meningitis Wall
'Now we have a picture of Kyle in the nursery hallway. It's the first thing everyone sees as they come into the building. We always have leaflets and symptoms cards here too and a collection box. We call it our Meningitis Wall.
And any new parents we have, we tell them what happened and also tell our new staff,' says Melanie.
'It's here that we put up information on our latest fundraising ideas. We hold discos, dressing-up days, and of course the Toddle Waddle. We have held two Toddle Waddles since Kyle's death - helping the children to dress up as ducks and having a really fantastic day. Both events raised more than 1,000 for the Meningitis Trust.
'The whole experience has made us super aware of the signs and symptoms of meningitis. Sadly, we truly understand about the devastation caused by meningitis.'
Toddle Waddle
Holding a Toddle Waddle can make a difference. The Meningitis Trust is available to help the staff, parents and families involved with nurseries.
The Trust's 24-hour helpline, led by nurses who are experts in meningitis, is a good first port of call for worried parents and carers. People can ring at any time during the day or night to talk about meningitis, how to spot it and find out how the Trust can support them through their experience of the disease.
One way to fight back and move on is to get involved in the Meningitis Trust's Toddle Waddle, a sponsored walk for the under-fives which takes place annually in nurseries, schools and communities across the country. This year the Toddle Waddle is being held between 3 and 16 October.
Free Toddle Waddle packs containing sponsorship forms, posters, leaflets on meningitis, fundraising ideas, and much more can be obtained by calling the Meningitis Trust.
You can register online today at www.toddlewaddle.org, or call 0845 120 45 30.
