Rare covid condition 'doesn't define me' says boy

A boy who was placed in an induced coma because of a rare post-covid response has taken on a fundraising challenge to "give back to the people" who helped when he was ill.

Sebb, 11, became critically ill in 2024 from a response to covid for which his family say he had no symptoms.

PIMS-TS is a post-covid response that caused severe inflammation throughout his body, affecting his heart and enlarging his organs.

He ran 5km a day for 30 days to raise awareness of the condition and say thank you to the staff at the John Radcliffe Hospital that looked after him.

"I remember getting home and my husband saying that Seb had said no to an ice cream, so he must have been ill."

Louisa, Sebb's mum, said he then started to become very unwell before being rushed to the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford from their home in Buckinghamshire for further tests, including an operation to check for appendicitis and at one point, was placed into an induced coma.

"That moment he went in for surgery was probably the darkest of my life."

Eventually doctors confirmed Seb had PIMS-TS, a post-covid immune response where the body wrongly thinks it's fighting the virus.

"It was something so so different, I think that added to the fear. It was this really rare condition," Louisa said.

Sebb said his recovery took more than a year before he was playing sport again, but that the doctors and nurses gave him motivation as "they were always in a good mood".

Speaking about being unwell Sebb said his message to people was that "it doesn't define you".

Dr Dominic Kelly said knowledge gained during the pandemic was vital in treating Sebb, as he was the first to present with the condition for around two years.

"Without children and their families involved in research during Covid, we wouldn't have been certain what the right thing to do was. So the lessons we've learnt from the PIMS-TS may be important for the future."

On the running challenge Sebb said, "I started in and was like, 'it won't be too difficult' and then I got like six days in and my legs were really sore and I was like, 'oh another 5k to run."

He said thinking about giving back to the hospital kept him going and wanted to say "the biggest thank you" to the staff during his time in hospital.