I always remember playing with my siblings when we were growing up, together we were invincible! My brother Chris is the eldest, then there's me, then my sister Kay and then our baby sister Tiffany. As sisters we did everything together, I remember one Halloween we dressed up as the 3 sisters from Hocus pocus for a school disco, the list of memories goes on. 


Tiff was the baby of the family. The youngest of us all, however she knew what she wanted from life and had a clear idea of how she wanted her life to go. She was an amazing little sister in every way, with a loving nature and an infectious laugh. 


We have always been a strong, close family and we cherished our family time. News years eve was always a time the family got together, I remember 2010 like it was yesterday. Everyone was relaxed having a drink, a dance and having a laugh, waiting to watch the fireworks on the telly an all counting in the new year together. It was a great night and no better way to see the new year in than with your loved ones. 


It was crazy how it all changed so fast. 17 days later Tiff fell ill with headaches, she visited the doctors and they diagnosed her with migraines. They gave her some tablets and told her to keep a dairy of how frequent and painful they were. The tablets didn't help and Tiff became more ill throughout the week. After seeing the doctor a few more times she was then on 22nd diagnosed with a kidney infection and prescribed medication for that. 


On the morning of the 23rd Tiff was conscious yet unresponsive, we called an ambulance straight away. When the paramedics arrived they could see she was seriously ill. She got rushed to hospital and was admitted to ICU. 


This was petrifying for us all, nothing like this had happened to our family. We all tried to stay positive for one another. Tiffany made it through the night with the help of a life support machine, it was a sense of relief to waking up knowing that. 


Late that Sunday morning we are all asked to go the hospital as soon as possible. When I arrived at the hospital I remember walking down the corridor towards the unit Tiff was on, I could see all my family at the bottom, waiting outside the doors. Immediate family were called in to a private room. We all sat down holding hands not knowing what to expect. The doctor who had been caring for and monitoring my sister explained that Tiffany had meningitis and was seriously ill, he explained that she would never be able to walk, talk or breath for herself again, she was brain dead. 

We all had a bit of time to take in the news we had just been given. We went to her bed side an said our goodbyes, it's then that the life support machine was turned off. 


Tiff died that day 24 hours after being admitted to hospital, she lost her fight against meningitis at the age of 16. 


Tiff was clinically diagnosed with meningitis until the results from the postmortem were released. My sister died of bacterial meningitis streptococcus, group c. 


When Tiff was 14 she feel pregnant. She decided even though she was so young that she wanted to keep the baby and on 2nd May 2008 Tiff had a gorgeous little girl. She was an amazing mum, always put her daughter first, loved her with every beat of her heart and never let her go without. Tiffany's daughter was only 20 months old when she past away. Her daughter is now 8 years old and is the spitting imagine of her mum, we may have been unfortunate to have lost Tiff so suddenly at such a young age and nothing will ever replace our baby sister but we are so thankful and grateful to have this little angel, this piece of Tiff in our life. She may be left without a mum but she is never left without love and the memory of her mum and how much she loved her. 


This type of meningitis is unfortunately most commonly known as fatal. Your donations could help researchers try and find away to understand this type and prevent deaths from happening as well as other amazing research. Please donate and help us help others.