After my friend died of meningitis during her first week at university, I investigated the disease killing so many students

My friend Antonia was 18 years old when she died overnight from bacterial meningitis, during her first term at Oxford University, in October 2009. Nine years on, there is still not enough being done to inform students about the symptoms and dangers of the disease.

Although many people are aware meningitis mainly affects babies and children, university students are the second most “at risk” group for the disease. One in four 15-19 year olds will be carrying the meningococcal bacteria at the back of their throats, compared to one in ten of the overall UK population.

Sadly, student deaths from meningitis are not uncommon. Lauren Sandell was 18 when she died from meningococcal W meningitis just two weeks into her degree at Bournemouth University, in October 2016. Jennifer Gray was 21 years old when she died in September 2016 of bacterial meningitis, believing her symptoms were a hangover. There is still not enough awareness about the symptoms of the illness which, even if it doesn’t kill, can result in long term disability. Even though I started at the same university the year after Antonia died there, I received next to no information about meningitis in my first few weeks at Oxford.

I felt relatively alone in having lost a friend at such a young age to meningitis; or I did until recently, when I heard Michael Rosen speak on BBC Radio 4 about losing his 18-year-old son Eddie to the illness.

Until now I was not brave enough to look into how many others in the UK have been affected by meningitis; but after hearing Mr Rosen’s appeal, I plucked up the courage. A quick internet search revealed there were many others, particularly of university age.

It made me wonder why I felt Antonia’s death was an anomaly for so long. Meningitis is not an obscure illness: it affects 2.8 million people around the world every year. Last year, then health secretary Jeremy Hunt set up a working group to raise awareness for the illness. He apologised to families who felt the health system had failed their children, who died of meningitis due to problems in diagnosis.

Whilst health professionals clearly bear the burden of properly diagnosing the illness – and more should be done to help GPs and A&E staff in this regard – it is obvious knowledge about meningitis and its symptoms should be included in health education for young people in schools and universities.

It is often left to survivors and their families and friends to tell our stories, but it should not be us alone. This Meningitis Awareness Week, I urge educators, medical professionals, policy makers and – most importantly – university students to make sure they know about this disease, which took my friend and so many others far too early in life.

Around 400,000 18-year-olds will start or have already started university this year: awareness should not be optional.

At the end of this week, the Meningitis Research Foundation will be appealing to people to write to MPs to ask what is being done to ensure health professionals don’t miss meningitis. I will also be asking mine what is being done to inform young people of university age in my area.

There is rarely a day that passes when I do not think of my remarkable friend Antonia, who should not have died in her first term at Oxford. I know, however, she would want her legacy to be used to question why more isn’t being done to save others like her from meningitis.

There is still much more to be done to raise awareness and rid the world of this terrible disease; and for those of us who have lost loved ones to meningitis, we tell their story in the hope it does not become anyone else’s.

Charities like Meningitis Now offer packs for students which can be downloaded or ordered online. A full list of symptoms of meningitis, which include fever, vomiting, a rash and a severe headache, can be found here.