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It's now been just 2 years since we lost our daughter, Georgia, to Meningitis on her 18th birthday in July 2011 and I am planning to run in the Great North Run 13.1 mile Half Marathon on September 15th this year, to raise money to help the research, development and release of a vaccine and beat this decease which can kill in 4 hours.

Please help me raise awareness and money for the Meningitis UK and Meningitis Trust to help the vaccine to be included in the vaccine pack given to babies and the booster needed for teenagers who are affected most by the decease.

Georgia's Story
Georgia was my step daughter. I met her about 13 years ago when I started dating her mother Carolyn. She was the middle child of 3 and the other 2 are Will 21 and Louis 16. It was her 18th Birthday on 9th July 2011 when she was diagnosed with Meningococcal Bacterial Meningitis and died within 12 hours.

The day before her Birthday she was complaining of a bad cold with headache and went to her GP who examined her and check for meningitis at the time and found no signs of a rash or anything to link what she had to Meningitis and was given flu remedy.

The following morning, July 9th 2011, her 18th birthday, she was in much more pain in her head and limbs. She also saw some minor spots on her hands and pointed them out.

We phoned the emergency doctor number but decided not to wait and carried her to the car and took her directly to the local hospital A&E where she was seen very quickly. The nurse called a doctor and she was treated with antibiotics for suspected Meningitis before being sent for a CT scan and more tests.

After the scan, she became sick and vomited. The results of the scan looked ok but she was complaining of a severe headache and was becoming delirious. The doctor was not able to carry out a lumber puncture to do further tests so she was taken to Intensive care to be sedated and put on a ventilator so she could be kept calm and to let the antibiotics do their work.

All of this happened between 0900 and 1200. Once she was on the ventilator, the machines were working her lungs and heart and she was being given medication and fluids to keep her going while in this state.

At about 1800, her vital signs changed rapidly and the consultant was called in to assist. After another hour, he spoke to us telling us that her brain had expanded greatly and the damage could not be reversed. Her brain was dead.

The Consultant told us that she would be kept on the ventilator overnight and he would run more tests the next day to see if she could stay alive without the ventilator but after trying, he informed us that she was not able to and she was pronounced dead at 1600 on the 10th July 2011.

This was the hardest and saddest news I had ever had to hear and the shock and upset will stay with us all for ever.

Georgia was a kind thoughtful lovely girl and she had recently passed her driving test and ticked the Donor box on her drivers license.

We agreed to let her organs be used to help others and a few weeks later we were told that her organs had saved the lives of 6 people 4 of whom would have died in a few days without her donated organs.

A 6 year old boy received her heart and was moved to a general childrens ward, her liver was divided in 2 and given to a 3yr old and a 14yr old and a 17yr old and 64 yr old were given her kidneys and taken off their daily kidney machines and could start leading normal lives.

A 21yr old girl was given her lungs after many years of suffering from chronic lung decease and made a good progress to recovery. Without the double lung transplant, she would not have survived.

We are very proud, and so I'm running the Great North run to raise money for Meningitis UK for a vaccine to stop this decease!

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