On the 25 February 2004, our healthy 20-year-old daughter, Becky, died unexpectedly from meningitis.
Becky's death was, and continues to be, an unfathomable concept. We still cannot grasp the idea that she is gone and that we are facing the rest of our lives without her. It all happened so fast!
Afterwards, it was amazing to us that no one really knew anything about this silent killer. Though we ran into numerous people that knew of someone that had meningitis, many still knew nothing of the disease.
It became apparent that we needed to raise awareness of meningitis and spare other families the pain of burying their child or sibling at such a young and vibrant age. We also knew that Becky would have wanted us to do something about this – to save other lives!
The Becky Werner Meningitis Foundation’s primary goal is to speak to students, community and medical groups, and whoever else will listen to a meningitis story from a parent's perspective.
Everyone who has lost someone wants to talk about their loved one's life. This gives us the opportunity to talk about Becky, remember who she was and to share her life with others. It also allows us to make
something good for the world out of something so terrible.
Every person should know the risks and dangers of meningitis! Educate yourself so that you do not become a victim. Our message is: Don’t Share! Sharing things like food, soda, water bottles or lipstick is an open door for many diseases like meningitis.
To date, our Foundation has reached out to literally millions of people through speaking engagements, articles, TV and radio appearances and commercials, newspapers and magazines. Our biggest achievement is that we have personally touched the lives of over 15,000 high school students. Through our fundraising efforts, we have also had the opportunity to donate over $25,000 to the Wisconsin Medical College for meningitis research.
Our goal is to bring about worldwide meningitis awareness. Vaccination and early detection is key. Every parent should be afforded the opportunity to protect their children by getting them vaccinated against every disease, including meningitis.
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