Skip to content

Jason Watkins and Clara Francis raise sepsis awareness after daughter's death

ITV Jason Watkins and his wife Clara Francis lost their daughter in 2011ITV
Jason Watkins and his wife Clara Francis lost their daughter Maude in 2011

Actor Jason Watkins and his wife Clara Francis say they hope a documentary about the death of their daughter will help other families who are grieving, and raise awareness of sepsis.

The ITV film told the emotional story of Maude, who died of the condition when she was two-and-a-half in 2011.

Watkins told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme their documentary was part of "trying to make things better".

The show, titled Jason & Clara: In Memory of Maudie, aired on Thursday.

Francis told Radio 4: "I didn't know other people who had lost children and it is unusual for a person to lose a child.

"By making the documentary, my objective, or one of our objectives, was to talk about that feeling and to hopefully, if anyone is watching it, make them go, 'Oh God, I'm not going mad because that's how I feel.'"

Allow Twitter content?

This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read  and  before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’.

Francis said she wanted to break the taboo of discussing child bereavement. "It's incredibly lonely," she said: "Even though we went through it as a couple and a family and surrounded by brilliant friends, it is the most lonely thing to deal with, the grief of your child."

The couple have campaigned to raise awareness of sepsis and its symptoms. Watkins, known for TV shows like The Crown and W1A said, it is still often difficult to have sepsis diagnosed and get treatment.

"It's troubling as a parent who has lost a child to think, despite all our campaigning and efforts, that it could happen tomorrow somewhere in a hospital in the UK when it shouldn't. We know it will do because it's so prevalent, so this documentary is part of trying to make things better."

In the documentary, viewers saw Watkins visit King's College Hospital in London to meet Professor Akash Deep, who runs training programme to teach nurses and doctors how to spot the signs.

The film also followed the couple as they prepared to move from the flat that Maude was born and died in, and showed the actor and his wife going through therapy and meeting other parents who had lost a child.

The couple also discussed the moment they discovered their daughter had died, the days following the death, and how a friend of Francis's had kept hold of Maude's belongings because she couldn't face packing them away.

What is sepsis?

  • Sepsis is known as the "hidden killer" because it can be so hard to detect
  • It is caused by the immune system going into overdrive. Instead of just fighting an infection, it starts attacking other parts of the body too
  • Ultimately it causes organ failure. Even survivors can be left with long-term damage and disability
  • Bacteria and viruses that cause diarrhoeal infections or lung diseases are the leading triggers of sepsis
  • In children, the symptoms include: a mottled, bluish or pale appearance, being abnormally cold to touch and a seizure or convulsion

Information and support for those affected by bereavement is available at BBC Action Line