Baby Rhodi died of group B Strep infection in January 2024. His family have set up an organisation in his name to raise awareness and funds for GBSS.
Mum Jasmine told us:
“After the loss of our beautiful son, Rhodi Lister, we felt like we needed to do something to spread awareness of this horrendous disease that we knew nothing about until we were told: “Rhodi has tested positive for group B Strep infection”. We decided to do whatever we could to prevent other families going through the loss we did. We got together a group of our very close friends and family and started “Remembering Rhodi”.
We held a meeting about what we could do to make a change and decided to host a family fun day to raise awareness of group B Strep, and funds for Group B Strep Support. In just six weeks we put on our Remembering Rhodi Family Fun Day, held in our local town of Tiverton.
We were overwhelmed by the support of local businesses who contributed to our raffle and the vendors who donated a large amount of their profits towards the event. We had so much going on; from a raffle with over 100 prizes, a bouncy castle, face painting, glitter tattoos, Hook a Duck, a local majorette performance and Name the Teddy to an amazing visit from royalty in the form of Princess Jasmine and Snow White plus so much more.
We didn’t have to pay a penny which just showed us how, as a community, we can pull together. We raised a staggering £4760! We were overwhelmed with the support from our community who attended the event.
Since Rhodi passed away, I’ve received so many messages from expecting mums thanking us for sharing Rhodi’s story. As a result, they have asked to be tested for GBS at their antenatal appointments and some have tested positive.
Rhodi dying was by far the hardest thing my family have had to deal with but knowing his name is saving lives makes us so incredibly proud of him.
We’re hoping that we can host our fun day once a year to continue raising awareness and funds for Group B Strep Support.”
