All for Billie campaign surpasses $30k for enterovirus research

A campaign established in honour of an Ocean Grove baby who died at just 11 days old of a little-known virus has surpassed a major fundraising milestone.

Ocean Grove mum Candice Bigham with a picture of her daughter Billie who died from enterovirus in 2019. Picture: Alan Barber

A campaign established in honour of an Ocean Grove baby who died at just 11 days old after being diagnosed with a little-known disease has surpassed a major fundraising goal.

Ocean Grove mother Candice Bigham established the All for Billie campaign in memory of her beloved baby, Billie, who died of enterovirus in 2017.

Mrs Bigham had not heard of the virus before her daughter was diagnosed when she was five days old and said there needs to be more awareness of the condition.

“Looking back on Billie’s situation, and knowing what I know now about enterovirus, there were a few things that could have been done better or differently or faster that might have potentially, and we will never know, given her a better shot at surviving,” she said.

An enterovirus is a single-stranded RNA virus that predominantly infects the gut.

There are many different types of enterovirus infections that cause a wide range of disease in babies and children, including viral meningitis and hand, foot and mouth disease.

While most enterovirus infections have mild symptoms, some cases can be fatal.

Mrs Bigham said Billie was born healthy and they stayed at the hospital for a few days before being sent home.

“When the nurse came to check on her a few days later, Billie had lost a lot of weight because she wasn’t feeding ... so they said she needed to go back to hospital.”

Mrs Bigham said initial tests on Billie came back positive for meningitis so she was put on antibiotics.

“The next day, more results came back as enterovirus ... we were told they knew how to treat it and it should be fine,” she said.

Two days later, Mrs Bigham was meant to be taking Billie home.

“We tried to give her a feed but she didn’t want anything which was unusual,” she said.

“I finally got her to feed but as soon as I sat her up to burp her, she vomited the entire thing back up.”

Candice and Davie Bigham with their children Aubrey, Bodhi and Harlow in 2019. Picture: Glenn Ferguson

Billie was then put on a feeding tube to give her body a break.

“They put the tube in and tried to get her connected back to monitors but then suddenly the emergency call went off and her body had given up,” Mrs Bigham said.

“They worked on her for the next few hours, the children’s hospital came down but they couldn’t get her stable to transfer her.

“They said there wasn’t anything they could do so we spent the next few hours with her and then she died the following morning.

“In less than 24 hours, it went from going to hospital to bring her home to she had died.”

The All for Billie campaign has raised more than $30,000 which will go towards whole genome testing to research different strains of enterovirus in Australia.

Mrs Bigham said she hopes to raise another $30,000 which will go towards researching the effects of antiviral on enteroviruses at the Victorian Infectious Disease Reference Laboratory, based at the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity.

Mrs Bigham said a fundraising event would be held in October.

To donate funds, head to candice-appeal.raisely.com.

To donate an item to the online auction, visit instagram.com/_all_for_billie.

Originally published as All for Billie campaign surpasses $30k for enterovirus research