Peter & Helen's Story

Peter and Helen Rowlands’ lives have been impacted by meningitis not just once, but twice.

On 23 May 2003 aged 16 our son Gareth (Gaz)died from meningococcal septicaemia while living at boarding school in Derbyshire in the UK.

We had spoken to Gareth just two days before his death whilst waiting to board a ferry from Northern Ireland to mainland UK where we were to attend the schools Academy Day.

That day Gareth had just sat an exam and informed us that he had just been to the gym and felt that his eye had popped and he now had a headache. We told him to go and take some paracetamol and we would see him the following day.

A day later we received a call in the early hours of the morning telling us the news that everybody dreads, a call that left our family totally devastated. It was from Gareth’s Headmaster informing us that Gareth had been found dead in his room.

As we were staying with friends they drove us to the school where we were met by the headmaster and the police who then escorted us to the hospital to see Gaz who had already been pronounced dead.

As they could not initially establish the cause of death, we were asked if more blood tests could be undertaken. This is when they established that the cause of Gareth’s death had been meningococcal septicaemia.

As if suffering the effects of the disease once was not enough, after moving to New Zealand in 2016 we faced this terrible disease again when our daughter, Sian, was diagnosed with viral meningitis in 2017 at the age of 32.

We were living with Sian and our two young grandsons at the time, Pete was away working overseas and Sian was lying on the sofa when I got up that morning saying she didn’t feel well and that she wasn’t going into work. She had mentioned the previous evening that she thought she was maybe coming down with the flu as she was suffering from a headache, along with aches and pains.

Whilst I took the grandson’s off to day-care, Sian made a doctor’s appointment for 30 mins later and asked if I could take her to the appointment as she didn’t think she would be able to drive.

Sian said she had an horrific headache and the light was hurting her eyes. She then put on her sunglasses and I guided her to the car, the doctors was just a 2 minute drive away. Whilst driving I asked her lots of questions, “Where on your head hurts?”, “Is your neck stiff and can you put your chin on your chest?”, “Have you got a rash?” and all the time I’m thinking to myself this could be meningitis.

On arriving at the doctors Sian was ushered straight into a side room and waited for the doctor. On examining her he said he felt that Sian should go to hospital and have a lumbar puncture. I then asked if he thought it was meningitis, which he said he thought it could be.

On arriving at Tauranga hospital Sian was taken into an isolation room and within 20 mins had had lots of blood taken and had a lumbar puncture.

Sian was informed within 24 hours of arriving in that she had contracted viral meningitis and had to stay in hospital for a further three days.

Her recovery process has been long and drawn out and she still suffers from headaches, bouts of tiredness, confusion along with bright lights and loud noises affecting her.