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<\/p>\nThe mother of a teenager who died from a rare strain of meningitis has said her symptoms left friends thinking she had heatstroke.<\/p>\n
Emily Alker who was 18 years old when she died from meningitis W, was celebrating her A-Level results and offer to university whilst on holiday with her friends in the summer of 2017.<\/p>\n
On the last day of her trip, Emily had gone to bed with a suspected headache and temperature chills, telling friends she wasn’t feeling well.<\/p>\n
Emily’s mum Beth Alker, from Goosnargh in Lancashire said: “Her friends thought it could be heatstroke. She was hot and cold [with] cold hands and feet and after a few hours she said she needed to go to hospital but then it went downhill very quickly”.<\/p>\n
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Emily was set to study law at the University of Birmingham [Beth Alker]<\/p>\n
Emily had then started to fit in the ambulance, whilst her parents flew out on the next flight to meet her.<\/p>\n
After arriving, nearly 24 hours after Emily first started to feel unwell, a doctor told the pair that Emily’s brain had “gone”.<\/p>\n
Emily had ambitions to become a lawyer and received an unconditional offer from the University of Birmingham to study law.<\/p>\n
To mark the occasion, she flew to Crete with six friends on holiday after Beth had given them a lift to the airport.<\/p>\n
“I remember saying to her that this is your summer, it’s all out there for you.<\/p>\n
“Her life was just about to start, everything she’d worked for was all going to come into fruition,” Beth said.<\/p>\n
‘She’s always missing’<\/p>\n
Since her death, Beth has campaigned on the disease, warning a lack of education about it and awareness of vaccines compounds the problem.<\/p>\n
Beth has since campaigned to legislate on booster jabs for over-16’s, along with a greater understanding of the disease.<\/p>\n
She said: “The thing with meningitis is, you think ‘oh I’ve got a headache, flu or an ear ache, but within a few, very short hours it takes hold of you and there is nothing you can do.<\/p>\n
“That’s why it’s so important to know the symptoms and that [young people] have had the vaccinations.”<\/p>\n
On the morning of Emily’s funeral, with whom her mother described as a “happy, healthy 18-year-old”, the family received something through the post.<\/p>\n
“She got a letter from UCAS with a stamp on the front saying ‘there’s a deadly strain of meningitis doing the rounds, make sure your child’s vaccinated.'”<\/p>\n
Beth admitted she wasn’t aware of such a vaccine, which could have potentially saved her daughter’s life.<\/p>\n
“I’ll never get over the fact that I didn’t know about this.<\/p>\n
“She didn’t need to die but it’s just something we’re just going to have to deal with,” Beth added.<\/p>\n
In the near nine years since her daughters passing, Beth said life has been “unbearable”, despite being survived by two sons.<\/p>\n
She said: “I’ll never get another Emily, she’s always missing.<\/p>\n
“Your siblings are there from young until old, when life goes right [but] she’s not there.”<\/p>\n
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Since her daughters death, Beth has campaigned for greater awareness and education around the disease [beth alker]<\/p>\n
Emily died of what is a rare strain of meningitis, a disease usually spread through close contact<\/a> with an individual.<\/p>\n Yet the strain is different to the more common B strain, which has resulted in the deaths of two students<\/a> in Kent and 20 more confirmed cases at the University of Kent.<\/p>\n Speaking to BBC Radio Lancashire<\/a>, Beth said events in Kent bring “the horror” of her daughter’s passing into focus, adding that she’s happy the disease is now getting coverage.<\/p>\n She said that although a course of vaccinations can be costly for many parents, two doses equalling \u00a3220, the benefits vastly outweigh anything else.<\/p>\n “There is no excuse to not protect our young people.<\/p>\n “They haven’t done anything wrong, they’re healty, they’re fit, they’re going out to festivals and just starting their lives – we should do absolutely everything to make sure they get to adulthood,” Beth finished.<\/p>\n Listen to the best of BBC Radio Lancashire on Sounds<\/a> and follow BBC Lancashire on Facebook<\/a>, X<\/a> and Instagram<\/a>. You can also send story ideas via Whatsapp to 0808 100 2230.<\/p>\n