Sian Alderton, from Norwich, contracted bacterial meningitis B in October 2024 and was left vomiting and with a red rash following a night out with friends.

The then 18-year-old was put into a medically induced coma just two days later.

Sian Alderton when she was 18 (Image: Supplied)

Doctors said she could have caught the bug from sharing a vape with someone in a club.

Her mum, Kerrie Durrant, 37, was told she may never wake up and could have just 24 hours to live.

Sian has thankfully been left without any long-term complications from the disease, which has killed two young people in a recent outbreak in Kent.

The outbreak of meningitis is being treated as a national incident, with the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) investigating 18 more cases linked to a nightclub.

Kerrie has spoken again to share the symptoms she noticed in her daughter.

“We had a Chinese and we ate normally,” she explained. “At about 8pm she said ‘Mum, I don’t feel well’.

Sian pictured before the night out (Image: Supplied)

“She wanted to get into my bed – she never wants to get into my bed when she’s ill, so she was quite clingy.

“Through the night, I could hear her waking up. From about 8pm to 5.30am or 6am she slept, apart from being sick.

“She was drinking like a goldfish. I said ‘let’s go to the toilet.’ She got up and she couldn’t move – she was aching.

“She crawled to the bathroom. That was the moment I said: ‘Hang on a minute, something’s not right’.”

Thankfully, the teenager pulled through – and scans show she has been left without any brain damage.

Doctors said Sian may have caught the bug from kissing a boy she was friends with in the club, or from a vape she shared.

Sian Alderton spent 12 days in hospital (Image: Supplied)

Speaking following the recent outbreak, the now 19-year-old said: “I did share a vape with multiple people on that night out, so we believe that’s where I would have gotten it from.

“I haven’t gone on any nights out since then – the most I’ve had the courage to do is go to a pub for maybe an hour or two, but other than that I haven’t wanted to go out since.

“It hasn’t put me off vapes, though I wouldn’t share with anybody anymore.

“If someone you know has a ‘sickness bug’, but they are also quite delirious or more aggressive than usual, it’s better to be safe than sorry.

“Get it checked ASAP – sometimes the rash doesn’t even appear on people, so you wouldn’t have thought they’d be in a life or death situation.”

According to the NHS, symptoms of meningitis include high temperature, vomiting, headaches, a rash that doesn’t fade when a glass is rolled over it, a stiff neck, a dislike of bright lights, drowsiness or unresponsiveness, and even seizures.

Students wait in line at the entrance to the sports hall at the University of Kent campus in Canterbury, where the rollout of a meningitis B vaccine has begun (Image: Gareth Fuller/PA Wire)

The symptoms can appear in any order, and those affected do not always get all of them.

The bacterial version of the disease, responsible for the outbreak in Kent, is rarer than the viral version.

While the MenACWY vaccine, offered to teenagers and students, protects against the A, C, W, and Y strains of the disease, the meningitis B vaccine is less common.

It is now being offered to around 5,000 students from the Canterbury campus of the University of Kent, alongside courses of antibiotics.