In March 2020 Vinny Smith, Chief Executive of Meningitis Research Foundation, published a candid blog considering what COVID-19 might mean for our future and the future of meningitis. Now, one year on, he takes a look a back at the past 12 months; a year like no other.
 
This time last year I had just returned from a conference in Bangkok with public health experts, gathered from across Asia, where I had shared my insights into vaccine hesitancy. I was about to go to a meeting in Geneva at the World Health Organization (WHO) for the final meeting of the technical task force, working to create the world’s first ever global roadmap for meningitis. And I was sat in an office in Bristol trying to find enough new bins, wipes and posters warning people to wash their hands and dispose of tissues safely, whilst listening rather jealously to stories of colleagues returning from family holidays in Northern Italy.

But that isn’t nearly the whole story of my year.

Because public fundraising across the charity sector could not continue through lockdown as usual, so too MRF’s funding fell dramatically. This meant at great speed we very sadly had to let go almost half our staff team; move office to a very tiny place with just a few desks; and at the same time keep supporting people who understandably had many questions about what COVID means for their lives living with the after-effects of meningitis. We needed to do this whilst working from home and trying to be there for each other as we all adjusted to this ‘new normal’. Mostly, we missed each other. We reminded ourselves continuously that, despite the circumstances we were in, our members and supporters still needed us to keep delivering on our founding promise - to try and ensure that ‘no family goes through what we have’.

And that’s exactly what we’ve tried to do.

And that’s not all. We also secured the Meningitis Progress Tracker as the go-to place in the world for the best data available across the four main bacterial pathogens that cause meningitis. Building on the success of the Global Meningitis Genome library, we ensured the Global Meningitis Genome Partnership is the hub for integrated conversations about global developments in this space. We hosted online research webinars for the first time. In November, after 4 years of hard work, we helped secure the world’s first World Health Organization global meningitis roadmap, aiming to defeat meningitis by 2030.  And, every day, we were there for people and families who needed our support.