Our son Joshua passed away in 2004 aged 3 after contracting pneumococcal meningitis. Just days before we lost Josh he went to Dudley Zoo for a friend’s birthday. He was running around and had a great time. We would never have guessed what we were about to face.

On Monday 26 July Joshua awoke very weak with a temperature. We took Josh to A&E and by 2:00pm he was fitting and they couldn’t bring him out of this fit. Josh was intubated and placed on antibiotics before he was taken for a scan.  

Medical staff tried to release pressure off Josh’s brain but just before midnight we were told he was brain dead.  We were in so much shock. How could our boy be playing one day and brain dead the next?

Josh was put on life support but it was too late. We turned the machines off on 27 July at 5:00pm. Post-mortem confirmed Josh had pneumococcal meningitis.