Our student campaign 2025 urges young people to know the signs and symptoms of meningitis and to ‘sound the alarm’ if someone is ill and getting worse.
As students start to make plans to go off to college and university, our student campaign 2025 encourages them to recognise meningitis as an emergency and to seek medical treatment if someone shows signs of meningitis.
We have been working with universities for many years to equip them with the information and materials to raise meningitis awareness amongst their student bodies. We have a range of materials available for colleges and universities which you can download here.
Ensuring universities, parents and young people understand the signs and symptoms of meningitis, and how to get help if someone is poorly and getting worse, is the crux of our ongoing work highlighting the risks to young people going away to university for the first time.
Why are first year university students at risk
Students can be more vulnerable to meningitis when they come together from all over the world to live, study and socialise together. They will be exposed to bacteria and viruses their bodies have not met before. This is why so many new students get ‘freshers' flu’.
Early symptoms of meningitis are often mistaken for flu or even a hangover, so it’s imperative that students know the signs and symptoms of meningitis, and are not afraid to call 999 if they recognise any in themselves or friends.
Through our annual student campaign we strive to empower young people to be a support system for each other when away from home for the first time at university.
Prioritise health and well-being
When there are parties to attend, new coursework to get stuck into, and new friends to meet, it can be hard to prioritise health and well-being, but making students aware of the risks of meningitis could, and has, saved lives.
The aim for our student campaign this year is to get our ‘sound the alarm’ sticker into every UK university. If you can help us with this goal, please do get in touch.
