Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page. This year, my family and I are taking part in the Great North Run to raise money for the wonderful charity Meningitis Research Foundation UK.

On January 9th 2023, my fit and healthy 23 year old brother Josh started to feel unwell. He had a rash, headaches, flu symptoms, sensitivity to light and was extremely tired - which we now know to be classic meningitis symptoms. Within 6 hours of being told by his GP that it was a viral infection and sent home, he was found by us in bed, unresponsive.

Josh was rushed into ICU and placed on life support for nearly 5 days whilst doctors worked tirelessly to try and save his life. They ran CT scans and did a lumbar puncture which confirmed the worst and Josh was diagnosed with bacterial meningitis. 

All we could think as a family was how could this happen? How did we miss the obvious signs? Why did we not get him help sooner? 

After two weeks in hospital, he was discharged, but his road to recovery is going to be long. He still has hearing, sight and balance issues which we hope will improve but it is still uncertain. As a family, we want to do this for him, to raise awareness for others who may not have a clue what meningitis is or just how badly it can go wrong and just how quickly it can go downhill. 

1 in 10 people who get this type of meningitis die and 1 in 5 have severe complications including brain damage, deafness and blindness. Josh is expected to have permanent severe hearing loss. This could have been far worse and too many people like him are not as lucky.

The charity is working very hard to make more people aware of the signs and symptoms, helping more people seek help when they need to and supporting scientists, researchers and public health practitioners to better understand meningitis, it's impact on people's lives, and what we can do to defeat it. The hopeful outcome of this is making meningitis a global health priority.  

If you would like to donate to my cause, any donation would be very gratefully received!