Meningitis is an infection of the membranes that surround and protect your brain and spinal cord. Though it can affect anyone, it’s most common in babies, young children, and young adults, and is very serious if it’s not treated quickly. Meningitis and sepsis often happen together, can kill within hours, and can have life-changing impact on survivors.
Because it can strike so quickly, it’s important to be aware of all the signs and symptoms.
Following World Meningitis Day, which aims to raise awareness of the disease and how to spot the signs, we’ve put together an animation to share what to watch out for.
VIDEO
A quick chat with Meningitis Now
Meningitis Now is a charity dedicated to fighting meningitis in the UK, by funding research into the disease and supporting those affected by it. We had a chat with Mark Jefferies, Partnerships Fundraiser at Meningitis Now, about the valuable work the charity does.
Why does your charity exist, and what are your aims?
Meningitis Now is here to ensure no-one need face meningitis alone. Our vision is simple - a future where no-one in the UK loses their life to meningitis and everyone affected gets the support they need to rebuild their lives.
How does Meningitis Now support people affected by meningitis?
Meningitis changes lives. We cannot change what happens when meningitis strikes but we can help people rebuild their lives, through emotional, practical and financial support. This support includes:
The Meningitis Now nurse-led Helpline is available to anyone affected by or concerned about meningitis. Our experts provide emotional support, practical advice, disease and vaccine information and can signpost to further support
We have four Community Support Officers based regionally across the U.K who are available to anyone living with the impact of meningitis, offering a listening ear, home visits, accurate disease information, referrals to other specialist organisations and access to financial support
Our Rebuilding Futures Fund pays for items and services to improve the wellbeing of people affected by meningitis. For example, specialist equipment, disability aids, rehabilitation costs, training, counselling, creative therapies and home adaptations
Believe and Achieve is our programme for 14-25 year olds to help them to prepare for a successful future and take their next step into education or employment. It offers workshops, coaching, mentoring, peer support, counselling and opportunities to meet others.
We also run support events to bring together people – such as Family Days, activity weekends for teenagers and ‘Forever’ events for bereaved families.
What is it that drives the Meningitis Now team towards achieving their goals?
Our inspiration is the families that we support and we often create communities through the services that we provide – we like to think of it as the Meningitis Now family. For each person we support, we want them to feel hopeful that they will rebuild a positive future.
How challenging has the past year been – what have been the positives and negatives?
The arrival of COVID-19 heralded unprecedented disruption for Meningitis Now with lockdown and the restrictions to social activities affecting our ability to fundraise and deliver key areas of our work. The financial implications of the pandemic were stark and we lost almost half of our budgeted income for 2020/21 as a result of cancelled events and community, individual giving and corporate fundraising.
During the period of the first lockdown and throughout the summer, we created The COVID-19 Young Futures Fund to provide financial support of up to £500 for items relating to the ongoing education, development, and emotional wellbeing needs of children and young people aged 25 and under.
If you could pick one thing that your charity has learnt over the past year that you think is the most important, what would it be?
We’ve always strongly believed that our staff, volunteers, the people that we support and those who support us contribute to our Meningitis Now family. Over the past year we’ve called upon this family like never before, as we faced what we called ‘Our Biggest Challenge’.
Now things are opening back up again, has Meningitis Now got anything planned to fundraise or raise awareness?
We’re so excited that our events and fundraising activities are starting to gather momentum once again.Run for Heroes website .Visit our fundraising page for more information on these events.available to watch on the BBC website if you miss the live showing.visiting their website .
For general enquiries
0370 1500 100
Or we can call you back at a time of your choice
Request a call back
Phone lines are open 24/7, 365 days a year
