This week, Martha Mills would have turned 18. Should have turned 18. But she didn’t. Instead, Martha – a schoolgirl with her whole life ahead of her – died in hospital in 2021 when she was just 13, after sustaining a pancreatic injury from a simple fall from her bike. But she shouldn’t have died.

While in hospital, she developed sepsis – and if her family’s concerns had been properly listened to and responded to, she could have still been with us to celebrate her birthday on Thursday. In 2023, a coroner devastatingly ruled that she probably would have survived had she been moved to intensive care earlier.

Ever since, her family have been tirelessly campaigning to improve patient safety in hospitals so that other families do not face similar heartbreak. The result of that work – spear

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