Actress, Hayley Tamaddon, famous for her roles in Emmerdale and Coronation Street, contracted meningitis for the second time last year, after her friend, who is a doctor and medical advisor for a number of high-profile TV shows, advised her to seek urgent medical attention after describing her symptoms. Thankfully, Hayley has since gone on to make a full recovery and has offered words of hope and advice to others in support of this year’s World Meningitis Day to help raise awareness of the condition.
Unlucky for me, I’ve had meningitis twice now and the second time (more recently) I knew exactly what it was. The same awful headache, not being able to lift my chin off my chest, an extremely high temperature and a racing heartbeat. I called a good friend of mine, who is a doctor. I told him my symptoms and he told me to go to A&E straight away.
I was getting worse... rapidly. My mum drove me to the hospital and at this point I could barely walk without holding onto them.
They were incredible at the hospital and straight away put me on all the right antibiotics in case it happened to be bacterial.
I was taken for a brain scan and the following morning I was taken to theatre where I had a lumber puncture and that confirmed it. I had viral meningitis. I was kept in hospital for a further 4 days until I felt stronger and then I was able to go home. During that time I developed a typical meningitis rash.
Meningitis is a horrible illness and can be fatal.
If you have any of the symptoms don’t hesitate to go and get checked out straight away. Thank you to our wonderful NHS for once again coming to my rescue.