An estimated 1,900 people die each day of infections that are resistant to antibiotics. That equates to 700,000 deaths globally. In the UK it is estimated at least 12,000 people die each year from antibiotic resistance (equivalent to the number of deaths from breast cancer) and the number is rising. According to the UK’s 2016 Review on Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR), this figure could potentially rise to 10 million deaths per year by 2050 if we do not take action now.

To counter this threat, Antibiotic Resistance UK is looking to raise £5000. This will support phase 2 research into new Antibiotic Resistance Breakers that will help fight some of the world’s most deadly and infectious bacteria.

It’s not just in the UK where the problem is escalating, as organisations and governments around the world are becoming increasingly worried. The World Health Organisation has recently warned of the imminent spread of an untreatable strain of gonorrhoea, while the latest G20 summit referred to AMR as a ‘threat to public health and economic growth’. Dame Sally Davies, England’s chief medical officer, has classified AMR as one of the main threats to the country, alongside terrorism and pandemic.

The emergence of bacterial resistance has far outstripped the pace of antibiotic discovery. Only two new antibiotics reached the market in the last 50 years. Infections from resistant bacteria are now too common, with some pathogens becoming resistant to multiple types of antibiotics.

Thousands of people are suffering due to AMR and the long-lasting effects it has. Please help us continue our ongoing research to save modern medicine. Donate today and every penny will go towards fighting the biggest threat to modern medicine we have ever faced.

This was the life-changing problem facing David Battie, star of the BBC’s Antiques Roadshow. His sudden absence from the show back in 2012 was due to an antibiotic resistant infection – one that nearly cost him his leg.

David slipped on wet grass and cracked the bones in his leg as he fell onto the road. “As I lay on my back in the gutter in the rain, I wondered how bad the damage was and carefully revolved my leg. It revolved but my foot stood still, so I knew it was bad”, writes David.

David was taken to hospital in Norwich, before being transferred to Brighton hospital, where he had to stay for six months. Suffering a complex fracture in his leg, David underwent ten operations. Scaffold rods were drilled into his bones to secure them. One month on, infection set in at the site of the procedure.

David endured immense pain in hospital. After many operations and lots of antibiotics – both pills and intravenous – the infection was not getting any better.

“They were pumping me full of antibiotics”, recalls David. “In the end, they tried to inject it every two hours’ day and night for a month. That was awful. I was dog tired all the time.”

Unresponsive to antibiotics, David’s infection developed and spread to the bone in his leg. David was faced with a critical decision: he needed to either have his leg amputated or have plastic surgery to remove the infected area. He opted for the latter. Despite damage to the skin during the operation, doctors saved David’s leg through plastic surgery.

Behind all the statistics, there are real people who have suffered like David – others, who have died. With the research funded by this appeal, we hope that stories like David’s will become a thing of the past.