'I thought my little girl just had a cold - then I knew something was seriously wrong'

A devastated father has spoken of his grief after his toddler died days after developing a serious neurological condition.

Lorelei Cowmeadow passed away days before her second birthday, having experienced cold-like symptoms. Her parents, Jack and Antonia, thought the infant was just "a bit under the weather" until she woke in the middle of the night, asking for a bottle and needing a nappy change.

Within minutes, Jack, 31, realised something was seriously wrong as Lorelei begin to fit in her arms. Recalling the ordeal, Jack said: "Her head was rolling back and her eyes were going backwards... Lorelei went from being an articulate little girl – who'd been clearly saying 'bottle' and 'daddy' to just mumbling, almost grunting, and making strange noises."

Paramedics rushed Lorelei to hospital, where she was put in an induced coma while doctors ran tests to work out what was wrong. They also gave her antivirals and steroids to fight off any potential infection.

But the youngster died on November 21, 2024 – just three days before her second birthday. She had developed encephalitis, a serious neurological condition where the brain becomes inflamed and swells.

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Lorelei's decline happened quickly as she had went to nursery as normal earlier that week. Although she needed a dose of Calpol during the day she was dashed to hospital, was dancing exuberantly in front of CBeebies at home come teatime.

And so the shock of Lorelei's deterioration left Jack and 31-year-old Antonia bereft. Speaking to the Daily Mail, Antonia, from Wokingham, Berkshire, said: "Neither of us could take in the magnitude of what happened; the speed she went downhill was beyond belief and within a few hours we were saying goodbye to our little girl.

"It was surreal – only a few hours before she’d been the bubbly, bossy Lorelei we loved – yet now she was clearly critically ill. We just couldn’t believe it was happening."

World Encephalitis Day happens every year and highlights how the World Health Organization (WHO) work with charities to promote awareness about the condition. The video above details more about World Encephalitis Day and what research is being done into encephalitis.

Encephalitis can be caused either by an infection directly invading the brain (known as infectious encephalitis) or through the immune system going into overdrive and mistakenly attacking the brain (autoimmune encephalitis). In Lorelei’s case, it was a complication of the flu. There are around 6,000 cases of encephalitis every year in the UK.

Professor Benedict Michael, chair of infection neuroscience at Liverpool University, said encephalitis can affect anyone, but there’s an increased risk in younger children – like Lorelei – and older people whose immune systems are less robust. The professor added that between 10 to 20 per cent of cases prove fatal. The vast majority of those who do survive can be left with lifelong disabilities, such as memory loss, language and cognitive problems.