Eighteen years after nearly losing her son to meningitis, Stephanie Rhodes is asking people to join her on a walk across Morecambe Bay to help raise funds for Meningitis Now
The ten-mile Cross Morecambe Bay Walk is a guided walk over the treacherous sands of the Bay in an organised group. The sands are known for their quicksands and fast-flowing tides – making it an exciting event for participants who need to be fit and ready to walk through water possibly up to thigh high on the four-hour trek.
Stephanie Rhodes’ son Ben was only 16 months old when he contracted meningitis. According to Stephanie, who grew up in Morecambe Bay but now lives in Waterfoot, he did not develop a rash straight away and she believes it was only because they took him to hospital that they were able to save her son’s life.
It is because of this that she wants to encourage as many people as possible to help raise funds for Meningitis Now and raise awareness about ALL the signs and symptoms of the disease.
“Ben did not have a rash when we set off for the 20-minute hospital drive – on being examined straight away, the rash was there!” said Stephanie, recalling the night she almost lost her baby son.
“It was a long and very worrying four weeks for us”. In the end, Ben was allowed home – but two weeks later he fell ill again and was blue-lighted to Burnley Hospital. There. They were told Ben was having a serious fit as a side effect of his meningitis.
Thankfully, Ben made a full recovery and is now a healthy and fit young man – who Stephanie is hoping will join her and other families on the Cross Morecambe Bay Walk for Meningitis Now on 11 August.
“I am doing the walk to help this amazing charity – and also because I love walking” she said.
“We’ve done the walk before so I am really looking forward to it as we met some lovely families last time. Even though our meningitis experience was over 18 years ago, it was good to be able to talk to people who had gone through the same thing as us and who understood how we felt.”
To find out more about the Cross Morecambe Bay Walk for Meningitis Now contact Community Fundraiser Elaine Close at elainec@meningitisnow.org or visit our fundraising pages.
