A Redruth woman who suffered life-threatening complications while giving birth to her son in December 2020 is to run next weekend's London Marathon for charity.

Kat Burton will attempt the world famous 26.2 mile run next Sunday (April 23) for Action on Pre-eclampsia, which is a charity that raises public and professional awareness of pre-eclampsia, improve care, and ease or prevent physical and emotional suffering caused by the disease.

Kat’s life was saved by staff at Treliske Hospital and she wants to make sure other lives are also saved.

She needed an emergency c-section to give birth to her son Saxon Ray on December 8, 2020, but then had an eclamptic seizure afterwards, which is a rare reaction to pre-eclampsia. She passed into unconsciousness and tests showed she had suffered heart, liver and kidney failure and a collapsed lung.

She spent 13 days in hospital and months recovering at home.

“During lockdown the team at Treliske Hospital saved my life when I developed rare complications from the disease during the birth of my son, resulting in heart, liver and kidney failure,” said Kat. 

“They were absolutely amazing and their awareness of pre-eclampsia truly saved my life. 

“This charity works to train medical professionals to work with pre-eclampsia and spot the signs quickly as unfortunately not everyone is as lucky as I was.”

She added: “The team that cared for us in the hospital were unbelievable, especially in the midst of a global pandemic.”

A year after giving birth she finally received the news from her cardiologist that her heart had fully recovered from the trauma.

She now wants to put it to good use and raise money.

“It has always been my wish to run a marathon,” she said. “When Action on Pre-Eclampsia announced they had places available on their special 30th-anniversary team my no longer dodgy heart skipped a beat and I knew I wanted to get involved. This was before I found out that globally every six minutes a woman dies from pre-eclampsia.”

Kat wants to raise at least £2,000 for the charity. People can donate at https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/kat-burton