Kieran Latham Story

Kieran Latham - Born 5th May 1989 - Died 1st July 1990.

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The Stewardson's were given the address of a Australian TPI family in early May 1994 by the Research Trust for Metabolic Diseases in Children (RTMDC). They wrote to Bev and Grant Latham and within a couple of weeks received a phone call from Australia. Bev and Grant told them the sad news that their son Kieran had died of TPI aged 13 months in 1990. This came as a very bad blow to David and Yvonne, because James was also 13 months old at that time. From the account given by Bev and Grant, Kieran was more adversly affected by TPI deficiency than James. Kieran was also a blond, blue eyed beautiful baby, just like James.

By a remarkable coincidence Latham was David's mother maiden name, and the Australian Lathams grandparents had emigrated from Manchester in the 1920's!

Both families telephoned each other and corresponded frequently during the next 12 months, and subsequently Dave and Yvonne Stewardson became very good friends with Bev's Brother Wayne Latham who was working in London. Wayne had given up his job to help nurse Kieran during his short life and was the focal point in their desperate search to gather information about TPI deficiency. The information the Latham's had gathered proved very worthwhile to the Stewardson's, opening up a few doorways regarding information gathering.

Kieran was in the care of Dr Lammi at The Royal Children's Hospital, Sidney.