Mia Gauci-Lamport

Mia had big hazel eyes that lit up the room, with a cute button nose, chubby checks and a pouty bottom lip that couldn’t be missed. Thick mousy brown hair with all the different types of bows and accessories to finish the look off.

Mia was diagnosed with Early Infantile Epileptic Encephalopathy. Facing a whole variety of challenges over her 16 years Mia proved time and time again she was a fighter. She was not letting any diagnosis rule her life, and showed unimaginable strength and determination. Defeating the odds and proving all health professionals wrong on many occasions.

Mia was unable to verbally communicate through words but would make her wishes and presence known through noises, sounds, body language and facial expressions.

Mia was mischievous from a young age which only grew when she got older. One of her favourite things to do was to dance around the front room. Her love for music developed and over time her favourite music became Disney and Smooth Radio. Disney obsessed as well as anything pink, glittery, sparkly and anything unicorns.

Mia was so loving and affectionate towards everyone, leaving an imprint on everyone she met. She would give the warmest of hugs, the cheekiest of smiles and the sloppiest of kisses.

Family Statement

As stated in our pen portrait of our beautiful Meme, we are learning to live with the unimaginable. Mia has left a large size Meme hole in our hearts and lives; we all miss her more and more as each day passes.

Mia was the most beautiful little girl and left an imprint on everyone she met. We are overall happy with the result from Mia’s inquest and as a family we are very relieved that a Prevention of Future Deaths Report has been submitted against The Children’s Trust for a second time as they did not learn from the first Prevention of Future Deaths against the lovely Connor.

We are devastated as a family to know that two children have now died at the Trust and they as a charity have failed them both for various of reasons, due to their night protocols not being followed as well as the care plans and failures from the management.

It’s disappointing as a family that The Children’s Trust’s Duty of Candour towards us was very limited, having to wait until an outside body flagged that their communication and support towards us as a family was poor. As well as receiving no formal apology from The Children’s Trust since Mia’s passing.

However, we would like to thank the staff who done Mia’s every day care and schooling at the Children’s Trust because Mia thrived due to this. A massive thank you for all the hard work and love that Bracknell Forest Social Care have given Mia, and us as a family, over the numerous years, it’s been outstanding to say the least.

We would also like to thank Natalie our Specialist Nurse for Child Death who has been our rock since the passing of Meme. The coroner and her colleagues who have worked tirelessly to get some closure for us as a family, thank you. Lastly, we would like to thank George Julian for reporting on Mia’s inquest, getting Mia’s story known publicly and supporting us through a difficult time with her expertise.

As a family, we are now going to take some time to reflect on the last couple of months, grieve our beautiful Meme and will be looking at our next steps to prevent another family going through this.