THE family of a Caerwent teen who died of toxic shock syndrome will be supporting her boyfriend as her runs the Severn Bridge Half Marathon this weekend in her memory.

Tom Steer, 19, of Alway, Newport is running the Severn Bridge Half Marathon on Sunday in memory of Natasha Scott-Falber, 14, who died in February, 2013, from Toxic Shock Syndrome (TSS).

Mr Steer who is a youth worker at Faith Community Church in Rogerstone will be running 13.1 miles from the Chepstow side of the M48 Severn Bridge to Thornbury before finishing back across the bridge.

He said: "I am really excited as this will be my first half marathon. I felt that I wanted to do this for Tash and her family to raise awareness and hopefully some money.

"I was Tasha's boyfriend for 17 months, it was a huge impact on me and her family. We are very close and meet up twice a week."

Tasha's family including her mother Mandy Scott are working with Public Health Wales to bring the symptoms of TSS to light and how to bring the topic into schools and lessons about puberty. TSS is a rare condition which kills two to three people in the UK every year and affects around 40 people.

The family have raised £2,750 so far and hope to produce cards to raise the awareness of the symptoms.

Mrs Scott said: "We are all going to support him. He was the one who wanted to do this - he wanted to do it in Tasha's memory.

"Hopefully this will give us an extra boost to reach £3,000."

The symptoms of TSS normally begin with a sudden high fever and other symptoms then develop which can include vomiting, a sunburn-like skin rash, with the whites of the eyes becoming red/pink, diarrhoea, fainting or feeling faint, muscle aches, dizziness and confusion.

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