But, seven years on, she’s healthy and happy with a young daughter of her own. She tells her story here:
“All I remember is telling my friend’s mum to pull over and stop the car, so I can be sick. Finally getting home, covered in sick, I was greeted by my older sister, who helped me wash down, gave me some medicine and got me to bed.
Trying to keep anything down was a nightmare. Every time I threw up, it was just cold water, what I had drunk a few seconds previously. Then I woke up in a drastic change of environment. Going from my bedroom, to a hospital bed, not knowing what was wrong, why I was there, not being able to see properly. That was horrible.
As days went on, I was listening to what the doctors were saying, what my mum had to say. My mum was so proud of me, she told me that the doctors had told her to say goodbye to me. She didn't though - she prayed by my bedside every day."
Things were not okay
“My mum told me that when I had got home in the morning I was asleep and had been calling out for her. When she came to see if I was okay, that's when she knew things weren't okay. I kept screaming and shouting for my mum. She was there in front of me.
She had called the paramedics, who told my mum over and over again that I was fine. I was a teenager with piercings and dyed hair. I was on drugs. I was not on any form of drug. The police had been called due to me being violent while I was unconscious.
I finally got rushed into the ambulance and taken to hospital, where I was put in resuscitation due to not having the correct materials and equipment. I then got rushed to St George’s Hospital. I was in a coma, on a life support machine - any parent’s worst nightmare for their child. I had blurred vision, scans, tests, injections ... the list was endless! I was told I had meningococcal meningitis.
I am a survivor of this horrible illness. I came out with all of my limbs, eye sight and everything else intact. Nearly seven years on I’m healthy and happy and I have a daughter of my own."
