Devastating moment Jason Watkins & wife Clara Francis discover daughter Maudie’s ‘little shoes’ after her death aged two
THIS is the devastating moment Jason Watkins and his wife discovered their daughter’s belongings for the first time since her death 11 years ago.
Stage and screen star Jason, 60, and his wife Clara Francis lost their two-year-old daughter in 2011 after suffering from sepsis.
Her life had been cut short after doctors assumed she simply had a chest infection – they had missed the signs that Maude had sepsis.
The heartbroken couple is now sharing their story in a new moving ITV documentary, Jason and Clara: In Memory of Maudie.
In heartbreaking scenes aired tonight, the pair were seen sorting through their tot’s belongings for the first time since her death.
Her clothes and toys have been packed up in a friend’s loft for the last 11 years.
Clara explained: “I found it very difficult to go into Maude’s bedroom and just see all her stuff as if she were still going to come in.
“So Emma took it all out and Emma has been looking after it in her loft for 11 years.
“Weirdly as time has gone on those things have taken on value to me and I think if we’d got rid of them immediately it wouldn’t be a problem, but because they’ve been there, they’ve taken on a significance and now I feel compelled to go through them.”
Clara was hit with a wall of emotion when she opened the bag and found her late daughter’s “little red shoes”.
She cried: “I don’t know if I can do it. What are we going to gain from it? Are you wanting to keep stuff?
“There’s a part of me that wants to put my hand in the bag and just grab something and try to get used to it, just to try to make myself keep them.”
Jason added: “The fact that it’s so physical, it’s such a physical thing. It’s the closest you can get to having her with us.”
What is sepsis?
SEPSIS can strike in adults and children - but what is it?
SEPSIS is the primary cause of death from infection around the world – that’s more than bowel, breast and prostate cancer combined.
The condition is always triggered by an infection – but it is not contagious and cannot be passed from person to person.
Most often the culprit is an infection we all recognise – pneumonia, urinary infections (UTIs), skin infections, including cellulitis, and infections in the stomach, for example appendicitis.
The immune system – the body’s defence mechanism – overreacts and the result is it attacks the body.
It can lead to organ failure and septic shock, which can prove fatal.
Bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites can all trigger sepsis – though the most dangerous culprit is bacteria.
In developing nations, the condition remains a leading cause of death.
Known by its colloquial name “blood poisoning”, sepsis is also often referred to as a “flesh-eating disease”.
Later in the show, Jason told how Maudie’s passing was the “hardest thing that could happen as a parent.”
He candidly said: “I suppose you blame yourself, well, I do.
“I was there when she was discharged from hospital for a second time?”
The actor, who played Gerry Fairweather in EastEnders from 1987 to 1988, became emotional as he continued: “She had breathing difficulties, which is a common symptom of sepsis.
“Her eyes were rolling in the back of her head.
“Didn’t they see what she was like when we came into A&E.”
Clara added: “How can you go to sleep one night and have a child who’s got a bad cold and croup and then wake up the next morning and your child is dead?”
Jason and Clara hope to raise awareness for sepsis, which takes the lives of 48,000 Brits every year.
The UK Sepsis Trust ambassador previously revealed he did not recognise the reaction when it happened.
Speaking in a video released by the charity, he said: “The symptoms seemed harmless. They seemed like any other cold, or flu, or stomach ache.
“But we now know that something else was going on underneath. If I was aware, I would have asked.
“There would have definitely been a different outcome, so that’s the way you can look after your children, and your families.
“Take a deep breath and think ‘Could this be sepsis? I’m going to ask someone’ because you could save their life.