Ali’s Story

My name is…

Ali

I am the mother of…

Imogen

My child is ….

4 years old

I want to help protect tiny hearts from the devastating consequences of Kawasaki Disease – the #1 cause of acquired heart disease in U.K. children because…

So that other families can be spared the distress and potentially life changing impact of Kawasaki Disease.

How Kawasaki Disease affected my family …

Imogen’s heart was seriously and permanently damaged when she was just 12 weeks old.

The thing I wish I had known is …

What Kawasaki Disease was, how it can be atypical in infants and how important early treatment is.

The advice I want to give parents is …

Always trust your gut instinct and push for answers – we were sent home by our GP twice and nearly discharged from hospital twice before our diagnosis – nearly two weeks into Imogen’s illness. This came too late to give her the treatment she needed to prevent such serious damage. I wish I had known about Kawasaki Disease and been in a better position to challenge the multiple misdiagnoses we had.

Is there anything else you’d like to share about your experience of Kawasaki Disease?

Most of all, I wish the doctors who treated us had known about Kawasaki Disease and how differently it can present in babies.