Vaccination advocates Catherine and Greg Hughes, who lost their four week old son to whooping cough in 201, have announced that they are expecting another child.
The couple shared their happy news on the Light for Riley Facebook page on Wednesday.
“We are so happy to share with you that we are being blessed with another little superhero (or princess!) this August!” the post read.
“We are overjoyed but very nervous at the same time. We haven’t allowed ourselves to get too excited until our scan this morning as the scars of losing Riley run deeply.
“Our daughter is over the moon and keeps cuddling and kissing my tummy. She asked if the baby could be Riley again, and we explained that it would be a different baby but one that we would love just as much.”
Unsurprisingly, Catherine confirmed that she would be having a whooping cough vaccination booster during the third trimester of her pregnancy.
Catherine, who was awarded WA’s Young Australian of the Year in 2016, has raised a staggering $70,000 for whooping cough research and instigated a viral campaign for the donation of more than 45,000 vaccines to UNICEF.
Baby Riley died in March 2015 after contracting the preventable disease. He was just four weeks old and was too young to be immunised.
In a post written on Facebook following his death, Catherine said that she wanted to be a driver of change to protect others against whooping cough.
“We’re desperate to ensure the passing of our child has not been in vain and to try and assist other families who may be potentially suffering from similar circumstances,” she said.
“Long term we’d ideally like to be the drivers of change within this country surrounding the treatment, management and long term eradication of this horrific disease.”
