Personal Stories

Rosetta, Uganda

Watching your toddler play and learn about the world around them should be a happy time for any mother. But Rosetta couldn’t enjoy watching her 14 month old son, Joseph, grow up because she lived with the constant fear of him contracting malaria - a disease that’s already taken the lives of two of her children.

Kids under the age of five are most at risk of dying from malaria - and both of Rosetta’s children were the same age as Joseph when they caught the killer disease.

Sam was treated in hospital when he first got very sick, but the disease flared up again shortly after, and his body was just too weak to pull through.

A year later, Rosetta rushed her daughter Lillian to hospital. But tragically, it was too late – Lillian also lost her life.

Rosetta was devastated and felt utterly powerless – she simply couldn’t stop the mosquitoes, that carry the disease, from biting her children as they slept.

But, thankfully, that’s not the end of the story.

Last year, five of the brave celebrities who climbed Mount Kilimanjaro to raise money for Comic Relief went to Uganda to hand out half a million mosquito nets. And Rosetta was one of the first to receive enough life-saving nets to protect her entire family.

By getting the nets, and information on how best to use them - mums, dads and their kids, like Rosetta and her family, have a fighting chance against this deadly disease.