Orla Dwyer
AN AWARENESS event held to celebrate the life of Sean ‘Lil Red’ Hughes’ who passed away last year has raised €1,000 for a sepsis research facility based in Dublin City University.
The event was organised by Sean’s family to mark the one-year anniversary of the 15-year-old’s tragic passing on January 12 2018 after he contracted sepsis.
Joe Hughes, Sean’s dad, described the night as “a great success and the right way to mark the date”. Seventy people attended the event in the Mansion House on January 10.
“We wanted to honour Sean’s first anniversary in a way that all his family and friends could get together and where it wouldn’t be a sad time, while also raising awareness for sepsis with his friends and like-minded people,” said Joe.
The money raised is being donated to SepTec, a research facility in DCU that has created a prototype for diagnosing sepsis quickly and accurately.
The SepTec device only takes 15 minutes to diagnose sepsis while current methods take from two to six days.
Dr Elaine Spain, co-founder of SepTec, attended the event and said she felt the community spirit that night was brilliant.
“You could feel the love for Sean and the support for the parents,” she said.
Dublin North West TD, Noel Rock (FG), and local councillors Paul McAuliffe (FF) and Cathleen Carney Boud (SF) also attended the event.
“The night was a bit emotional, but it was great to be there,” said Joe. “We had a great turnout with a lot of people from the community and Sean’s friends.”
Well-known local rappers performed on the night to celebrate Sean’s huge love for rap.
“They were fantastic and got the crowd going,” said Joe. “They played all of Sean’s songs and it was a lovely night.”
Goody bags were given out containing Sean’s CD and sepsis awareness posters made up by Joe and Karen.
“There was recently a poll put together that showed the under 24s know the least about sepsis,” said Joe.
“That’s the group that we had there that night and that’s the group that we have access to because of Sean’s friends.”
Joe said that people knew 100 percent more about sepsis after the event. The family made banners, t-shirts and lanyards for the night with Sean’s image and sepsis awareness information on them.
The SepTec researchers will be using the money to help fund a pre-clinical trial in St James’s or Beaumont Hospital.
“We’re putting that money towards hiring a research nurse to carry out tests for us so that it’s completely non-biased,” said Dr Spain.
“I think it’s incredible what they are doing but I just wish it was avoidable, what happened to Sean.”
Co-founder of SepTec Kellie Adamson was also in attendance on the night and was full of praise for the awareness Sean’s family and friends are raising for sepsis.
“I think the work they are doing is a game-changer,” she said. “The only way change is going to happen is through pressure and they’re definitely putting the pressure on.”