First-year university students are about seven times more at risk of meningococcal disease than other young people of the same age, according to UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA).
O’Connor was 20-years-old when she contracted meningitis at university in Bristol.
She said it happened “quite suddenly” and she got “really poorly very, very quickly”.
“My head was a pain that I’d never experienced before,” she said.
“I truly thought it was going to melt out of my ears, it was so painful.”
Despite being put on a course of antibiotics by her doctor for suspected tonsillitis, it was her cat that helped raise the alarm.
“My cat, the next day very early in the morning, [she] was screaming at my mum, miaowing quite loud,” she said.
“And she led her into my bedroom and that’s when my mum found me convulsing in bed.”
Rushed to intensive care, she was put into a medically induced comma.
“They had to cover me in ice to try and cool my temperature down,” she said.
“[And] my family were told to gather around and say goodbye.”