Vaccine rollout will save so many lives, says student who recovered from menB

A university student who nearly died after contracting meningitis B three years ago has said the rollout of a vaccine will save “so many lives”.

Sophia Speirs, 22, was in her first year at the University of Manchester when she became deaf in one ear after being severely ill with menB in 2023.

After receiving vaccines against four types of meningitis at school, the third year Spanish and Portuguese student thought she was protected and was not aware there was another type – menB – that she had not been vaccinated against.

“I knew that I’d never refused a vaccination in school. So why would I have to worry about illnesses? I thought I was protected,” she said.

A menB vaccine was introduced on the NHS for babies in 2015, meaning the UK’s current generation of older teenagers and university students have not had it.

Following the “unprecedented” outbreak in Kent, a rollout of the menB vaccine to around 5,000 students at the University of Kent’s Canterbury campus began on Wednesday.

Welcoming the move, Miss Speirs told the Press Association: “Most students are vaccinated against (meningitis) ACWY at school so that’s why we don’t see as many cases of those. This just shows how effective the vaccine really is and therefore getting the menB vaccine on the NHS is so, so important, as it’ll save so many lives.”

She also warned others to be wary of early symptoms and not “wait for a rash” to appear.

Miss Speirs said the only symptom of meningitis she had previously been aware of was a rash, which is a sign of potentially fatal blood poisoning.

“I know that everyone says to look out for a rash… but it’s actually quite dangerous to say that,” she added.

“That rash often appears only once you’ve developed blood poisoning, once you’ve developed septicaemia. So I want to get the message out that you shouldn’t wait for a rash.”

Other symptoms include a fever or vomiting and can be initially misinterpreted as a hangover, sickness bug or cold.

Miss Speirs said the recent outbreak of meningitis in Kent “really hits close to home”.

She added: “When you’re a student, you just feel like… nothing’s going to happen to me. Why would that happen to me?

“Seeing the faces of the people that passed away, I see that, and I’m like, that could have been me.”

Miss Speirs was 19 when she first developed signs of meningitis in March 2023.

She said she was vomiting persistently and had an “awful, splitting headache”.

After one night, her symptoms had worsened severely. She said she was “so weak” that she could not “form a sentence”.

She said her mother called her and “said that when she [her mother] picked up the phone, my face was just… completely dazed. Like, my eyes were glazed over and I was just looking at the screen blankly.”

Her flatmates called for an ambulance and she was taken to Manchester Royal Infirmary. Miss Speirs said that at the time, she could not “see anyone” or “hear what anyone was saying”.

She said: “They have to act pretty fast, because it’s a very fast-acting disease. So they put me on antibiotics straight away, and that’s what saved my life and you know, saved my limbs, the rest of my hearing, my vision, like everything.”

She developed septic arthritis in her hip and lost all hearing in her right ear.

After six weeks she was readmitted to hospital for a further seven days due to a suspected bacterial infection and inflammation around her heart. Her heart problems returned the following January.

Medical professionals told Miss Speirs it would take a year to recover, but she said it was “just under two years until I felt like my immune system could actually handle it”.

She had a cochlear implant installed as a result of menB and said without it she feels “so anxious in social situations”, and if she had not got it she would have “hidden myself away”.

“The key thing to watch out for is how quickly it’s progressing… if your friend is feeling unwell at university, make sure you keep checking in on them,” she said.

“Make sure to look out for your friends.”