CARE worker Ed Fogg will get his day in court next month in his long battle for justice over the death of his 22-month-old son Jacob.

He has just completed a 70-mile walk to raise funds towards being legally represented at an inquest taking place in London on June 19 into Jacob's death two years ago.

The family disputes the cause of death being put down to natural causes because they believe proper medical attention could have saved Jacob.

The toddler died of meningococcal meningitis in October 2000 in the arms of his parents Ed and Emma Fogg and his grandmother, former Marlborough mayoress Edwina Fogg.

The couple split up six months after the tragedy and 31-year-old former male model Mr Fogg has returned to Marlborough to live with his parents, and is now working with people with learning difficulties. His wife has returned to Australia where her parents live.

The family claim that staff at the Whittington Hospital in north London failed to realise that Jacob had meningitis. A doctor said the child had flu and told the Foggs to take him back to their home in Crouch End.

Jacob's condition worsened and less than seven hours later his distraught parents took him back to the Whittington, where meningitis was diagnosed.

Jacob died at 4pm on October 16 2000, less than 24 hours after his parents had first taken him to hospital.

The family's request for an inquest was turned down and an appeal to the North London coroner was dismissed. Under the law at that time there was no appeal against a coroner's decision.

There has since been a change in legislation resulting from a Court of Appeal decision that when there is an allegation of death being due to neglect a coroner is obliged to hold an inquest

Mr Fogg, whose father Nick organises the Marlborough Jazz Festival and has just been elected back on to Marlborough Town Council and Kennet District Council, said the family will be represented by a barrister at the inquest at St Pancras on June 19.

He said he hoped to collect about £3,000 sponsorship towards the legal costs from his walk, which took him from North London where Jacob is buried along the Thames path to Reading and then along the Kennet and Avon Canal towpath to Savernake.

After completing the walk on Sunday, Mr Fogg said he was reluctant to go into too much detail about the tragedy in advance of the inquest. He said: "The hospital said from the start that the treatment they gave Jacob was appropriate which clearly it wasn't."

He said he was looking forward to the culmination of his family's long legal battle to get an inquiry into Jacob's death.

"All we have wanted to do is get the facts out into the open to prevent anything like this ever happening again," he said.

Mr Fogg and his wife have always emphasised that they wanted an inquiry in the interests of justice and not to get any financial compensation.

A Whittington spokesman said yesterday that it would be inappropriate for it to comment.