Grandmother on losing 21 month old granddaughter to meningitis: "You never get over it"
She's raising awareness of the symptoms of the disease
A grandmother is urging people to familiarise themselves with the symptoms of meningitis, after losing her granddaughter to the disease.
Dawn Whiteman's family was involved in racing at the Arena Raceway in Purfleet for many years.
Her granddaughter Maya died in 2012, aged just 21 months, having been diagnosed with meningitis just 16 hours earlier.
"We thought that meningitis happened to other people down the road.
"We didn't think it would happen to our family. We're just a normal everyday family and you never think it's going to happen to you, to your family. Why our little girl? Why her? We weren't aware of the signs."
Dawn remembers Maya becoming unwell on 1st August 2012: "It was very sudden. Her day had been normal, she'd been running around the garden and getting up to mischief, just being Maya.
"It wasn't until the evening when she had gone to bed, she woke up and was sick, then had a seizure. An ambulance was called but within two hours at the hospital, they sent her home, where she had another seizure. She was then taken back into hospital.
"The next morning she was rushed to Saint Thomas's because the septicaemia had set in, and by 12 o'clock she had gone, after just 16 hours.
"It was a race against time that she didn't win."
Dawn now spends her free time raising awareness of the symptoms of meningitis, so other families don't go through a similar experience: "It's something I will beat myself up for for the rest of my life. I should have been more aware.
"I should have known the signs of of meningitis and I didn't, so now I've made it my ambition to make sure other people know the signs, so Maya didn't die in vain.
"She died to save other children's lives, and we know, through what we've done, that she has saved other children. People like us now know the signs and act upon them.
"You should always go with your gut instinct."
Dawn says it's still tough that Maya is gone: "You learn to live with it, but you never get over it and you never will.
"This year has been very hard because she would have started senior school this year... She should have had her prom. We should have been going to look at secondary schools, but she didn't get the chance."
Symptoms
This comes as a new study from the Meningitis Research Foundation found only one in 20 parents know all the symptoms, which include headaches and a rash.
More than three quarters of parents (78%) knew that meningitis, which is caused by bacteria infecting the lining surrounding the brain and spine, is life-threatening and can kill within 24 hours.
Most also knew that meningitis and septicaemia can cause a rash and a dislike of bright lights.
Fewer people recognised symptoms including cold hands and feet/shivering (30%), breathlessness (33%) or having pale and mottled skin (43%) as indicators of the disease.
Claire Wright, head of evidence and policy at the Meningitis Research Foundation, says they're trying to raise more awareness, to save people's lives: "Every day we support people who are coping with the life-changing impact of meningitis and septicaemia, from deafness, to limb loss, to epilepsy or long-term memory issues.
"Yet the bacteria that trigger these illnesses can be defeated in our lifetime through better vaccine development, availability and uptake, improved diagnostic tests and through knowing when to get medical help.
"It's also important to remember meningitis and septicaemia are more than just a rash, which doesn't always appear.
"This poll tells us that not enough parents are aware of some of the other signs to look out for.
"We want to change that, so more lives can be saved."