Bereaved mother meets Jeremy Hunt again as she bids to raise awareness of sepsis after death of her son

By Richard Pallot: ITV News Correspondent

How many of us would recognise the symptoms of sepsis? Or even know what the disease is?

That remains the battle for Melissa Mead, who today was back meeting the health secretary for a second time to try and find a way of increasing public understanding of the deadly disease.

Before heading to see Jeremy Hunt, Melissa told me she wanted, as a bare minimum, a public awareness campaign signed on the dotted line. She did not get that. Promises yes, but still nothing concrete.

Her one-year-old son William died from the condition after GPs, the 111 helpline and an out of hours service failed to spot it.

The toddler one of 14,000 who are estimated to die unnecessarily every year because of a lack of knowledge of sepsis, sometimes even among health professionals themselves.

The health secretary did give some assurances today - to investigate bringing about an awareness campaign, at sharing health records across primary and secondary care, and the possibility of specialist sepsis training for GPs. Oh yes and another meeting in two months' time.

All progress yes, but slower than Melissa wanted.

And by my maths, meaning more than 2,000 more people will have been killed by sepsis when they should have had a chance of survival.