What 1 Mom Wants Every Parent to Learn From Her Final Moments With Her Child

Although Sharon Carver's 6-year-old child, Marc "MJ" Poole had otherwise been healthy, a meningitis infection quickly overtook his body. Just two days after developing symptoms, her son passed away.

In the final hours of his life, someone snapped a heartbreaking image of the mom from England cradling her little boy before he died. As Sharon and her husband, Marc, cope with their grief, they are sharing this photo as an important warning to parents about what meningitis can do and how quickly it can kill a child.

Sharon wants others to recognize that although meningitis might not immediately come to mind when a child starts vomiting or experiencing a rash, lethargy, or a fever, these can all be signs of the devastating infection. "I don't want any parent to go through what me and Marc went through — I cannot describe the feeling of losing a child," Sharon told the Daily Mail. "You watch TV, films, and read these things about other people — it's frightening how quick this horrible condition can take hold."

Sharon described her child as perfectly healthy and happy before he complained of a headache. She gave him over-the-counter medicine but MJ's condition quickly worsened and within days he died at the hospital. According to the coroner, the infection caused MJ's body to go into septic shock and the child died from organ failure.

Since then, Sharon has been advocating for sepsis and meningitis awareness. She now knows the importance of early detection of meningitis and is urging others to learn about the infection so as not to hopefully ever endure a similar hardship.

Here are the common symptoms of meningitis and/or septicaemia in babies, toddlers, and young adults that parents should be aware of: