Blog for Meningitis Research Foundation

My involvement in Meningitis Research Foundation’s Awareness Week really began the week before Awareness Week. I had a phone interview with a journalist for the Daily Mail. This got me ready for what was in store for the following week, giving me an idea of the types of questions by the media I would be asked and allowing me to mentally prepare for the task in hand. I ensured I remained calm throughout the interview as I didn’t want to reveal details which I didn’t want to make public and wanted to make my focus on the pushing for a vaccination for Meningitis. My mum spoke to the journalist in order to give a parents’ perspective, a stance the Daily Mail were keen to take and added to the overall impact of the article.

A few days after the phone interview I had photos taken. I was dreading this process and felt very shy, especially when the photographer said that I really should be wearing a skirt. However I had decided by this stage that I was happy to do anything (within reason!) to help the campaign and so I donned my Kate Bush inspired outfit with pride and went for photos in the park, embracing the people staring at me continually with the vague hope that I was famous.

The following week was officially Awareness Week and following the frenzy of the Daily Mail article I was ready to get involved in whatever ways I could and publicise the campaign as much as I could, including getting friends and family to sign the petition and posting numerous Awareness Week related ‘statuses’ on Facebook and Twitter!

I also made sure I publicised the Awareness Week to my local media, both in my parents’ area and in Leeds as I wanted to touch both of my communities. Therefore I contacted The Retford Times who wrote two excellent articles, one focusing on ‘my story’ and the other focusing entirely on meningitis and septicaemia and the positives a vaccination for Meningitis B could bring which I was very pleased with.

I returned to university in Leeds and the next day had an interview with Calendar News. This was the first time I had been behind a camera and I was fairly apprehensive. However, the journalist who was interviewing me put me very much at ease and it became very much a relaxed conversation, I almost (but not quite) forgot the camera was on me. I was really happy with how this piece turned out as they focused very much on students starting at university, which is where I contracted meningococcal septicaemia and so is a very important focus group for me in raising awareness. I was nervous seeing myself on tv but was very pleased with the outcome and it was great to see my experience being used to such great effect.

My next (and very much most nerve-wracking) media appearance was for The Wright Stuff Extra with Gabby Logan. I begged my mum to come down to London with me where we stayed the night and travelled to the studio the next morning. I was most anxious for this interview as it was live, it was television and I was aware that I may be asked a question that I didn’t really want to answer. Also, they asked me to take my other pair of legs with me to show the viewers. This for me is not something I mind doing but rather an action I have never really done, even with some of my closest friends. However, my decision to get involved with Awareness Week meant that I was happy to open up a piece of myself, and my experience which I had kept hidden previously. Also one of my main concerns with this interview was that I was given strict guidelines on what I was not allowed to mention: the Meningitis Research Foundation, the petition or the Counting the Cost campaign and I was also not allowed to wear my Research Foundation t-shirt. This was hard as the Awareness Week was the sole reason I had agreed to share my story. However, I was really pleased with the publicity the show was able to give.

On the Friday of Awareness Week I had an interview with BBC Nottingham. They were great as they were happy to mention the campaign as much as they could and so I didn’t feel under any pressure to try and mention the details of the campaign as I was given the space to speak freely about it.

I cannot encourage people enough to get involved with future Meningitis Awareness Weeks. If you or your family has been affected by meningitis or septicaemia the best thing to do is speak out and raise awareness. In some ways Meningitis Awareness Week helped me too. I dealt with the after effects of this devastating disease, by choice, very privately, talking only to my parents and close friends and coming to terms with the changes in my life and the realisation of my own mortality which this disease brought on my own. Thus when awareness week came, the realisation that I could use this life-changing time to raise awareness was very empowering and I felt that by being honest and open about my experience people were truly stirred by my story into trying to get the vaccination introduced so others didn’t have to suffer.