Mum’s plea to students: Get vaxxed
A HEARTBROKEN mother is urging young people across the North West to have a potentially life-saving vaccination.
Meningococcal disease can cause serious illnesses, including meningitis and septiceemia, which can be deadly and require urgent treatment.
University student Teygan had everything to live for. His mum, Ailsa, describes her devastating loss . . .
TEYGAN was 19 when he went to Manchester University to study Russian. The middle child of three and the first to go to uni, he was very excited.
He soon made friends in his halls. We would have short text messages and phone calls to reassure us he was happy, settling into student life and coping with his course.
Although there were no general concerns health-wise, he did have a cough, which was noticeable when he spoke on the phone.
This seemed to persist for a few weeks but never seemed to bother him much.
Whenever I brought attention to it, he would say ‘well mum, everyone has a cough!’ and I
was reassured by friends who had children at uni that it was probably fresher’s flu – something every student seems to get.
Teygan came home for a few days during October half term and, apart from tiredness, gave no cause for concern. He returned to uni and went out for Halloween, then out again on the Saturday night.
On the Sunday, he went to bed and stayed there the whole day. A check was made on him by someone in the halls around 8pm and it was said he gave the impression he was feeling better, but the conversation was held through his door. He was not seen.
About an hour later, he got up and opened his door but collapsed in the hallway. He was found by a friend who immediately saw he had a rash.
His friend knew it was one of the signs of meningitis and rang for an ambulance straight away. But he could not be saved.
As a family, we are united in our grief and shock at what happened. No one had any real awareness of the risks of meningitis at university, neither family nor friends.
I realise now that we have to change this perception and make it one of the first things families think of when a student starts preparing for university.