Sepsis Research (originally FEAT- the Fiona Elizabeth Agnew Trust) was founded in memory of Dr Fiona Elizabeth Agnew and her unborn daughter Isla, who both died from sepsis in 2012.
Their story is the reason the charity exists – and why it will not stop until fewer families face the same devastating loss.
As the UK’s dedicated charity for sepsis research, Sepsis Research brings together patients, families, clinicians, scientists and policymakers to direct funding where it is most urgently needed. The charity’s work is guided by the Top 10 Sepsis Research Priorities, developed by patients and clinicians working together to identify the questions that matter most.
Everything is driven by one goal: to reduce the number of people who die from sepsis and improve life for the thousands more who survive but face its lasting effects.
Sepsis is the body’s extreme response to an infection. It can affect anyone, at any age, and it can progress with terrifying speed.
In the UK alone, around 250,000 people develop sepsis every year and 50,000 lose their lives.
Despite the scale of the issue and the impact sepsis has on families across Scotland and the UK, public awareness and understanding of the condition remain far too low.
Sepsis Research shares the lived experiences of people affected by sepsis to help more people understand what sepsis is, recognise the key warning signs, and understand that it is a medical emergency requiring urgent treatment.
Awareness can help save lives today – but research is what will change the future of sepsis.
Sepsis Research believes that sepsis deaths and long-term harm can be reduced, but only through the right research: research that is ambitious, rigorous and translated into improvements in clinical care.
The charity funds proof-of-concept studies, PhD studentships and collaborative projects that address the priority areas of diagnostics, discovery, therapeutics, post-sepsis syndrome and genomics. The focus is on early-stage research that can struggle to secure funding elsewhere – bold ideas that need a catalyst to get started and that could transform outcomes for people affected by sepsis.
“When I founded this charity, it was for one reason: so that Fiona’s death, and Isla’s, would mean something. Sepsis had taken them both, and I couldn’t accept that so many others were dying from the same cause, often in the same preventable way. That pain became purpose.
But something has happened in the years since that I didn’t fully anticipate. This charity has been found by hundreds of other families, other survivors, other people who have lived through what we lived through and who came forward to say: me too. This happened to us. Let us help you change it.”
Craig Stobo, Fiona’s husband, Isla’s dad and founder of Sepsis Research.
