Our team

My Meningitis Story, Holly McNaughton, Community Ambassador

Our daughter Helen died in January 2001, aged 18, from meningococcal septicaemia while in her first year at university.

In December 2010, I thought I was coming down with a cold. On December 21, I went to bed early and in the early hours of the morning I was vomiting, had diarrhoea, felt cold and had muscle and joint pain.

In 2004, our daughter, Gillian, died from meningitis just days after the birth of her second child Grace, who also passed away. 

In 1992, my son Luke, died from meningitis aged 22 months. He initially had flu-like symptoms, but the doctor thought he’d had a convulsion, so he was referred to the local hospital. 

I have been volunteering with the charity for the past 12 years since losing my nephew to meningitis in October 2007. 

I was diagnosed with bacterial meningitis in January 2010 at the age of 32. 

My meningitis journey began when our youngest son, Sam, aged just 18 months became very poorly. 

My first involvement with meningitis occurred when I met Steve, Gloria and family on my honeymoon in Cyprus 27 years ago.

I first encountered meningitis in July 2003 when my eight month old daughter, Hannah, contracted pneumococcal meningitis and septicaemia. 

Fiona and her husband, Simon, lost their 16-month-old son Cy to meningitis in October 2007. Cy passed away just 24 hours after contracting the disease.

Lesley Tanton and her husband, John, lost their 14-year-old son, Mark, in September 2010. He had the Y strain of meningitis.

My name is Jacob. On 10 January 2013 I walked into hospital, where I remained a patient for the next 699 days; I had contracted meningococcal septicaemia.

'Meningitis' – I knew that word but it didn’t mean a lot. ‘Pneumo-what?’ The other word was definitely Double Dutch. 

When our grandson Charlie woke with a temperature and a rash, his mum Claire knew that something was seriously wrong and rushed him to Bezier Hospital.

Emma Moore was 26 when she became a Meningitis Now Community Ambassador in 2015, after losing her son George to meningitis in October 2013 at just 10 months old.

My name is Hannah and I live just outside of Swansea with my husband Ashley.

I developed viral meningitis in February 2003, when my children were just 1 and 3 years old.

Hello, my name is Julie Green. In January 2012 my son Louie contracted meningococcal septicaemia at the age of 5 months old. 

Hello, we are Barbara and Bob Johnson from Essex. We started supporting the charity in the days of the National Meningitis Trust after the death of our son James in May 1991 from Group 'B' meningitis and septicaemia.

James was a long-standing supporter and fundraiser for Meningitis Now before becoming a Community Ambassador in 2018

I first came to know Meningitis Now following the death of my baby grandson, Charlie, from pneumococcal meningitis in 2010 and the wonderful support my family received from them at that terrible time.

I contracted a severe case of viral meningitis in 2002. I was leading an active life, training for my first open water sea triathlon, when viral meningitis struck.

On 7 October 2016, my 23-year-old daughter Katherine came home from work feeling unwell.