Sheree Harris has cried throughout most of our interview.

It is clear the loss of her beautiful son has been so devastating she questions not only how she can carry on, but even whether she should.

The tragic death of seven month old Jermaine Harris will be the subject of an inquest later this year, but Sheree has asked Plymouth Live to use her heartbreaking tale as a warning to other parents.

On February 13 this year, she was faced with every parent's darkest nightmare. She fought hard for his life despite being alone and in immense distress, putting into practice first aid she learned from a course, massaging his tiny heart, breathing air into his lungs as an emergency call handler gave instructions and reassurances over the phone, but all to no avail.

Sheree said she knew from the first moment of finding Jermaine, from his pallor, his skin cold to the touch, that all efforts would be in vain, but hoping against hope she stayed with him, following the instructions by the call handler, remembering her first aid lessons taken shortly before falling pregnant, where she had practised CPR on a dummy body.

Order of service

She revealed she only left her son's side - his body placed on the floor as per the instructions of the call handler, his chin slightly raised to keep his airway clear - to run to the front door of their home in North Road West, to let in the paramedics who had arrived in minutes, but which to Sheree it felt like years.

They took over and continued the battle before carrying him into the waiting ambulance, gently escorting Sheree into the front seat. The inevitable race to Derriford Hospital was a blur to Sheree.

"I was going into shock", she recalled. "My body was like jelly".

At Derriford Hospital's Accident and Emergency department, he was surrounded by nurses and doctors who did their very best. It was not enough.

Jermaine's death was called by medical staff at 9.03am. He and Sheree and her friend Julie were set to go on a train journey that morning "to Exeter or Paignton or Torquay". It was to be Jermaine's first train journey and his bag was already packed, waiting.

Sheree said: "I prepared it myself the night before. I'd got everything ready. I wanted to set off early and make a big day of it."

Mum Sheree Harris hopes her tragic story will help save someone else's baby.

Sheree, aged 41, was somewhat stunned to learn she was pregnant so late in life. She already had a grown up 22-year old son, and two other teenage children from previous relationships. She also had had a child 21 years ago. They were stillborn, but it is clear to anyone listening to Sheree speak that to her, this child was still her child and each year there was a recognition of the age they would have been.

Her niece, Rachael Williams, who sits with us during the interview and has been a deep well of support for her heartbroken aunt, explains how issues in Sheree's past led her to a desperate situation.

While it remains very personal and private to the wider family, the birth of Jermaine was effectively Sheree's chance to show she was a good mum and, as Rachael describes ,"she was smashing it, she was brilliant".

Sheree said: "I was on the ball 100 per cent. Every morning we were up and washed and fed and dressed. I had done a 12-week parenting course and passed it."

In a new relationship, Sheree said she was in "complete and utter shock" to learn she was pregnant again. "I thought I was going through the change. I never ever thought it would happen."

Photos of Jermaine and his mum Sheree, taken the day before his tragic death

Rachael explained how all Sheree's family were excited at the news. But at 15 weeks she suffered a fall in the garden, resulting in a bleed. She was taken to Derriford Hospital and tests revealed Sheree was diabetic, necessitating more trips to hospital and a regime of insulin injections.

Jermaine was born a month early, on July 5, 2018 and Rachael was there throughout. After more than 20 hours in labour, Sheree was induced but it was eventually decided to perform a caesarian. After the operation Sheree was then put under and it was not until the next morning that she was finally able to see and touch her little boy, who weighed in at 6 lbs and 14 ozs.

"It was not a delivery I ever expected," she said. "I woke up and came round and the nurse had Jermaine in her hands and she said he was a beautiful baby, that he should have been a girl because he was so pretty. I couldn't hold him because of the operation, but I put my hand into his crib and oh my God I have never ever felt a grip like it."

Rachael had been in a nearby room after Sheree was put under and saw him whisked about by medical staff, unable to get a good look at him.

Rachael Williams (left) with her aunt Sheree Harris who lost her seven-month old son Jermaine

She said: "I'll never forget - I heard him before I saw him. What a set of lungs on him! The midwife brought him, plonked him in my arms and said 'I think he knows he's due a bottle already'."

Sheree and Jermaine stayed in the hospital for several days, due to the caesarian operation and concerns over her diabetes. They returned home and Sheree's life became days of simple pleasures with her unexpected bundle of joy. Feeds, days out, listening to music, playing with toys.

She said: "He was brilliant in every way, he was happy. He didn't like playing on the floor - they said he was too posh for the floor. He liked being out and about. If it had got to lunchtime he'd want to be out, as if saying 'c'mon mum, let's go'.

"He was such a gorgeous happy little boy, always smiling. A beautiful little boy. People would come to the pram and say what a beautiful little boy."

Sheree, who has learning difficulties, attended children centres, worked with health visitors, ensured she had every bit of knowledge needed to make sure Jermaine was raised well and surrounded by love.

"I miss him so much. He was just learning to say 'mum'. I used to put Jermaine on the bed to change his nappy and all that and I'd put my hands side by side of him and say 'Mummy's coming to get you' and he would wiggle on my bed like a little worm laughing at me. I miss him, I miss him so much. He was like my world, he was my world.

Jermaine Harris was described as a "gorgeous happy little boy, always smiling"

"He was healthy, thriving boy. The day before it happened we had gone to Victoria Park."

On that trip photos of Sheree and Jermaine were taken and were later used on the order of service booklet at his funeral, held at Weston Mill Crematorium chapel. Songs from his favourite children's programmes were played including the tune from Postman Pat.

Rachael is keen to point out that after Jermaine's death, he underwent a thorough examination, including a full skeletal x-ray.

"There wasn't a mark on him," said Rachael, emphatically.

The precise details of that morning will be made public at a inquest, presided over by a coroner, later this year, where evidence gathered by police, South Western Ambulance Service and other agencies will be given.

Sheree said she will attend but the morning's events will never leave her and retelling them brings her to heartbreaking sobs.  Rachael adds that it has left all the members in Sheree's wider family completely distraught.

She had woken at just before 6am that day. She had given him a bottle feed. There was the usual babytalk between her and Jermaine.

She said: "He was yapping away to me. Jermaine would sometimes sleep in my bed - he would always sleep better there. I spoke to him, we played for a little while. I put him in the middle of my bed.

"Jermaine used to prefer it in my bed. He had a cot, but he always preferred it in the bed. He would kick his covers off in the cot and I can be a heavy sleeper and I used to be petrified that I'd go in a deep sleep and he would kick his covers off and freeze. I couldn't work the heating timer properly."

Rachael explains why her aunt was so fearful of Jermaine getting cold, saying her Nan had lost a twin sister to pneumonia when she was just three weeks old and so there was always a panic over the temperature of babies in the family.

Jermaine's favourite songs were played at his funeral

Sheree adds: "It was a cold winter so that's why he slept in the bed with me.

"I went to make a cup of coffee. I sat back in the seat for a couple of minutes and fell asleep."

At 8.13am, Sheree's world collapsed.

"The phone was ringing. It was my friend Julie. I had my phone in my hand as I spoke to her. I went to the toilet and then went to the bed. I pulled the quilt off where I believed Jermaine was. He wasn't there."

Frantically she looked over the bed and then the cot beside it. Fearing the absolute worst she kicked the bed away and Jermaine's body was revealed.

Her phone records that she phoned the emergency services at 8.15am.

As the formal statement at the opening of Jermaine's inquest on March 4 this year stated, Sheree had found that her beloved son: "had become wedged in a v shape between the bed and the cot which were located close together. He appeared to be lifeless. Attempts to revive Jermaine were to no avail."

Jermaine Harris, the day before he died

It adds, simply and clearly, "there are no suspicious circumstances". At this stage, no cause of death has been given as there are further medical investigations under way.

Trying to gulp in breaths to speak through her sobbing, Sheree explained how Jermaine was "cold and floppy... I knew. I knew straight away.

"I've got nothing to live for. I've had my days. It's not the same now. That little boy was my own life"

At the hospital, Sheree was brought in to see Jermaine being certified deceased, various tubes fed into his body. His body was then taken away and Sheree was left sitting with a nurse. He was later brought back, wrapped up in swaddling and a pitiful picture of a distraught Sheree holding her son was taken, so very different from the one taken just the day before.


Sheree wants other parents to heed her warning: "Don't leave them in your bed - ever. I thought he was safe in my bed. Never, never ever do it. I'd done it with my kids when they were poorly. It was only me and Jermaine at my flat.

"I can be a heavy sleeper but when Jermaine was in my bed I never slept properly. I'd sleep so light when he was in my bed.

"I'm just keeping busy now, go out for walks. It helps me. I'm collecting up all his clothes and toys and will be giving them to a charity so that it will help someone else.

"If by sharing my story, if I can save a child's life or save them from injury, then it's worth telling it. I can't change the past, but I hope I can save someone's future."