Meningitis stories

In the middle of the covid pandemic, 19-year-old Alice became ill and increasingly worse, fortunately the intervention of friends and family meant that an ambulance was called.

It's not the physical symptoms that Ashleigh remembers the most of in the hours before her diagnosis of bacterial MenB meningitis, but her change in behaviour

Hours after Liam had first complained of a sore throat and light sensitivity, he needed to be placed in an induced coma as he battled meningococcal meningitis

Cat was in her first year at uni when she was struck down by viral meningitis. Four years on, with support from Meningitis Now, she is learning to manage her after-effects

Sixteen-year-old Courtney is slowly recovering, 11 months after being hospitalised with meningococcal septicaemia

Student Matthew started feeling unwell at work, and it wasn't long before he collapsed, ending up on life support in hospital

Alice had been given the MenACWY vaccine, but didn't recognise the symptoms. Luckily, she called her mum, who got her to hospital in time to be treated for meningitis and septicaemia

Lewis went to bed with flu-like symptoms, but by the following morning his condition was deteriorating rapidly and he sadly lost his life to MenB. Through organ donation, he has helped save the lives of six others

A severe headache was the first warning sign that Lydia was becoming seriously unwell, resulting in 16 days in hospital where she was diagnosed with viral meningitis

On the lead up to the one-year anniversary of daughter Joanna's death, mum Wendy tells her story as she prepares to take on the RideLondon-Surrey 100 in her memory

George was at a festival enjoying being a carefree teenager when he was struck down with meningitis B. Here, his sister Nicole describes the heartache of watching her beloved brother pass away

When Ashleigh Browes, 21 of Lincolnshire, was suffering with intense facial pain, discomfort and tiredness, she went to bed with the intention of visiting her doctor the next day

Sixteen-year-old Mollie, from Holmfirth in West Yorkshire, felt under the weather on 20 October 2015, but not too ill to go to college

When he received a phone call that his son had been rushed to hospital, Pastor Phillip Omodeni immediately returned from a holiday in Nigeria to be by his side

In February 2015, Charlotte Hannibal, now 19, had just returned to university after visiting her family when she suffered a number of flu-like symptoms

Jamie-Leigh Rockett, now 18, of Watford, had just finished her GCSE’s when she contracted viral meningitis in June 2012

Teygan Sugrue was embarking on a new adventure; making new friends and studying his favourite language, when he was cruelly struck down by meningitis

19-year-old Teaching Assistant, Emily Styles, had her whole life ahead of her when she was suddenly struck down with meningococcal meningitis on New Year’s Eve 2013

Charlotte Stuart, 20 of Tunbridge Wells, was 19 and studying Architecture at the University of Cambridge when she was diagnosed with meningococcal group W (Men W)

Jemma, from Eastleigh in Hampshire, was a 19-year-old student building her future when she was laid low by the Y strain of meningitis