Lisa Snowdon has recalled almost dying from meningitis after ignoring symptoms for weeks, and said she still suffers side effects 16 years later.
The DJ and presenter, who appears on daytime show This Morning, has shared her story in the wake of an outbreak of meningitis B in Kent that’s left 29 people sick and resulted in the deaths of two students.
Snowdon, 54, contracted a viral strand of the illness in 2010. She had been suffering headaches, fever, fatigue and freezing fingers and toes, but wrote these symptoms off as exhaustion from her busy schedule.
She told The Times: “My neck was really stiff. I was waking up with a fever. I was freezing cold all the time. I’d lost my appetite completely. I was in agony.”
But, despite being “blinded” by the lights in the studio where she presented Capital Radio’s Breakfast show with Johnny Vaughan, Snowdon said she “stupidly didn’t listen to my body and get the help I needed” and just “kept going”.
However, after almost one month of these symptoms, she was hospitalised and put on an IV drip before being officially diagnosed.
At this point, her condition was deemed so critical that her parents were summoned to “come and say goodbye”. She spent 10 days in hospital in total and believes leaving her illness untreated for several weeks is a key reason why she suffered so badly.
Snowdown said that, despite recovering, she is still affected by headaches, fatigue and memory loss as a result of the illness. Her experience led to her appointment as president of charity Meningitis Now, for which she raises funds and campaigns for a rollout of the effective menB vaccination that is currently only available to babies on the NHS.
The broadcaster described her experience as “a huge wake-up call”. “It was so horrific to be that poorly for so long, frightening my family, frightening myself, and realising I have to look after myself,” she added.
When news of the outbreak in Kent surfaced, Snowdon was on a fundraising trek across the Sahara with 30 others who have previously been affected by meningitis in some way – either personally or through family members.
She described the news as “triggering”, adding: “I was with families that had lost teenagers. It brought everything back.”
The “devastated” family of an 18-year-old girl who died in the Kent outbreak have called for a mass rollout of the menB vaccination.
Juliette Kenny is one of two young people confirmed to have died in the “explosive” outbreak, and her family have now backed growing calls to extend NHS access for the menB vaccine to teenagers and young adults.
It comes after more than 100 students were turned away while queuing for a jab in the major vaccine rollout after officials at the University of Kent’s Canterbury campus stopped letting people in “due to capacity”.
Health secretary Wes Streeting said the eligibility criteria for having a jab would be widened, so that anyone who attended the nightclub at the centre of the outbreak from 5 March until it closed on 15 March would be offered the jab, alongside sixth-formers at four schools and more university students in Canterbury.
An urgent public health alert has been issued to NHS staff, urging them to be vigilant for signs and symptoms.
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