A GRIEVING father wants to raise awareness of a condition which kills 44,000 people a year.

Kevin Elliott, 63, hopes to raise the profile of sepsis, a condition which kills more people than bowel, breast and prostate cancer and road accidents combined.

However, he says it is rarely talked about.

Kevin said his partner Kerry died aged 55 due to the condition, which is a result of the body’s reaction to infection.

He said: “She was lovely, never a vicious person, she was so loving.

“I was with her for 37 years and we just clicked, we were inseparable.”

Father-of-two Kevin admitted life has been a struggle since his beloved partner’s death in February.

But he is now fundraising for the UK Sepsis Trust.

Kevin said Kerry was admitted to hospital three times suffering with infections and sepsis since last June. Her final stay would be her last.

After her second stay in hospital, Kevin said: “When I came to pick her up she looked absolutely paranoid and full of fear. She told me she must have been hallucinating the night before.

“I went to the doctor and told him to just come and look at her - there was no way she was ready to come home.”

Symptoms include slurred speech or confusion, extreme shivering or muscle pain, passing no urine in one day, severe breathlessness and mottled or discoloured skin.

“Another symptom of sepsis is sufferers thinking they are going to die,” added Kevin.

“I was working in Ipswich and I rang her up and could hear voices in the background.

“She told me there were ambulances and paramedics there as she felt she was going to die. I got home and calmed her down, she used to get panic attacks so I thought it could be something to do with that.”

Several days later Kevin called paramedics after he found his partner dazed, confused and sweating profusely.

“She was taken straight to resuscitation and had quite a few people busying around her,” he said.

“It was then I was told she has got severe sepsis, and they wouldn’t give her a high chance of living “They took her up to a specialist unit.”

After a brief period of apparent recovery, she took a turn for the worse the following day.

“The next day she was talking gibberish, sat up in bed mumbling to herself,” said Kevin.

“She couldn’t eat. I remember giving her her last meal, cauliflower cheese, which she used to love.

“She was put on machines for about five days before a consultant came to see me and said they had got to the point of futility and she should be taken off life support.

“I wanted to be there when they took her off the machines. She fought for ten hours when they took her off, I stayed with her the whole time.

“I still now can remember her final breath.

“I think even now I am still in a state of shock.”

A MUSICAL fundraiser featuring a host of Colchester-based bands will raise money to fund research into sepsis.

Kevin Elliott has organised the event, which will be held at the Quayside Bar and Ghurka Restaurant, in Haven Road, Colchester, on Sunday, August 27.

Bands including The Shrinks and The Ministry of Mojo will put on a show to remember, while a raffle will feature a range of prizes donated by Colchester businesses.

Entrance costs £2 per person on the door.

All profits from the event, which will run from midday until 8pm, will be donated to the UK Sepsis Trust.

A spokesman for the trust said: “Sepsis is hard to diagnose and is the third largest cause of death in the UK.

“Its symptoms are easy to confuse with other conditions. That is why it is our mission to drag sepsis into the light.”