Meningitis is a very frightening disease. It can strike quickly, causing someone to become serioulsy ill within hours and if not treated successfully can cause death or serious disability.

If you read no further than this please visit www.meningitisUK.org and have a look at what the symptoms are. Knowing them is vital as prompt medical treatment can really mean the difference between life and death.

If you visit this site it will also answer all those really technical questions that you have been asking us for the last year!

In the UK 2,400 people per year are affected by all the types of Meningitis and so you have to be pretty unlucky to get it. To have two family members get it in the space of 6 months is really very unlucky and yet that is what has happend to us. 

We look at it slightly differently. We have actually been, with some great NHS medical care, very lucky as the two boys that have had Meningococcal Septicaemia appear to have made full recoveries as you can see from this recent photograph. Daniel is the one with the cheeky chappy grin and he caught it last summer. Lewis, who is usually the real smiler of the bunch is in the middle and he got it in January this year. Our eldest son Joseph is on the right and he deserves a special mention because he was brilliant during the illnesses of his brothers.  

We have decided to try raise some money to support Meningitis UK's 'Search 4 a Vaccine Campaign'. The single focus of this is to find a vaccine to eradicate all forms of Meningitis. If you go to the earlier link there is a wealth of information to show you what they are doing to fulfill this goal.

To this end an intrepid band of family and friends are doing a 20 mile walk around Kinver (including the really steep bits leading upto Kinver Edge), on 26th July 2008. We will be finishing up at The Vine for a well deserved beer or two so if you are in the area why not pop in! 

We would really welcome your support in raising some money for this worthy cause.

Regards

Andrew, Michelle, Family & Friends