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Marie and Chris Perry with children (from left) Erin, Ryan, Meghan and Madison

THE memory of a tiny baby, who died at just seven months old, has inspired his grieving family to mount an awareness campaign about the threat posed by hospital superbugs.

Friends and family of baby Ethan Perry, who died a year ago this month, dressed in yellow to raise awareness of the infection that contributed to his death.

Ethan - a twin who weighed just 1lb 10oz when he was born prematurely at 24 weeks in January 2007 - contracted MRSA in St Mary's Hospital, in Portsmouth, when he was three weeks old.

Despite a long battle, Ethan was unable to beat the bug, which was complicated by a chest infection. He passed away on August 18 last year.

On the anniversary of his death, Ethan's mother Marie Perry, of Branton Close, South Ham, Basingstoke, and other family and friends sought to raise awareness of the MRSA infection and to stress how important it is that hospital visitors use the sanitising gel provided for their hands to help stop the spread of infections.

Mrs Perry, 29, who spent time in Portsmouth, Southampton and Basingstoke hospitals with Ethan, said: "It's not just the doctors' responsibility. I get so frustrated when I see people go past the alcogel pumps and not bother to stop."

Mrs Perry said she does not blame the medical profession for Ethan's death. However, she added that families should not be afraid to ask nurses to use the alcogel when treating their relatives, and similarly nurses should feel free to ask visitors to sanitise their hands.

Mrs Perry also created an "Ethan's yellow day" page on online social network Facebook to raise awareness of MRSA and more than 4,000 people signed up and agreed to wear yellow on the day.

On the anniversary of Ethan's death, Mrs Perry and husband Chris, 33, treated their children Ryan, eight, Meghan, seven, Madison, three, and Ethan's twin, 17-month-old Erin, to a trip to Marwell Zoo.

Mrs Perry said: "The children's lives were put on hold a lot, especially when the twins were in hospital.

"They were dragged from babysitter to babysitter and we couldn't have got through that without some amazing friends, who I could ring up with 10 minutes' notice and drop three kids off to."

She added that she hopes her children will remember their brother for the six weeks he was at home rather than the six months he was in hospital.

Erin has regular hospital contact due to problems caused by her premature birth, but her proud mum said: "She's coming on in leaps and bounds. She's so determined."

4:09pm Friday 29th August 2008

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