In 1996, Nigel very nearly lost his best friend to meningitis, he was minutes from death, but thankfully recovered with no lasting after effects. He knows how serious the disease is and how quickly it can affect anybody, so wants to support it by running for us.
Keri got septicaemia after the birth of her first child when he was only 13 days old. The after effects were severe. It led to multiple organ failure, and after being on a life support machine for two weeks, it then took her seven weeks to recover and get well enough to return to her baby boy. She also lost her hearing. She therefore wants to protect others that are affected by the disease by raising funds for MRF to fund research.
Cory Blackmore
Cory’s nephew, Ethan Berry, died aged 13 months of meningitis, and MRF provided a lot of information and support to his parents. His son also contracted the disease, in the form of Group B Strep.
Liz Brooks
Her brother Dom died in 1996 at the age of 22, her and her friends, family and running partner have been fundraising ever since. She has toured schools giving talks on the disease, her experience and making people more aware of meningitis.
Will Campbell
Will’s mother contracted meningitis a few years ago. The Foundation helped and supported her a lot, and she is keen to pay something back by running the marathon for them and fundraising in the process.
http://www.justgiving.com/Will-Campbell
Deborah Chessum
Debbie's daughter recovered from meningitis in April 2003. Since then Debbie has gone on to run the London Marathon 3 times and the Disney marathon for MRF
Chris Dillon
When Chris was younger, many of his cousins and his brother contracted meningitis. As he was only young he did not know the consequences if the disease, as he now understands, he would like to help make a difference. http://www.justgiving.com/Chris-Dillon
Chris Dunn
Chris has run the London Marathon year on year for MRF in memory of his Dad, Brian who passed away 10 years ago from meningitis.
Elaine Field
Elaine is running the marathon in memory of her sister-in-law who she lost to meningitis. Her mother-in-law is now very involved with the Meningitis Research Foundation because of it. Elaine found out about the charity, the runs and the fundraising we do through her mother in law. She realises how much of a devastating disease it is and wants to help us by providing funds to allow more research to be done into preventing, treating and detecting the disease.
Emma Gale
Emma lost her son Oscar to streptococcal meningitis in 2001, and has already raised over £4,000 in his memory.
Rachel Humphriss
Rachel is Liz Brooks’ friend and running partner. The impact of Dom (Liz’s brother) dying, on their family has really motivated her to raise funds for the Foundation. Her daughter had suspected meningitis at 10 days old, she will never forget the fear.
Christopher James
Christopher nearly died from meningitis when he was 12 years old; his parents supported the foundation for many years following this. He would now like to do all he can to support the charity that helped him when he was ill, and to try and protect his son from it.
Richard Laurie
One of his very close friends, Nick Hughes, almost died of meningitis. He received great support and is now on his way to making a full recovery. Richard wanted to do something to help, and Nick suggested that he ran the marathon.
Helen Lever
Helen suffered from meningitis and meningococcal septicaemia when she was 16. She had to go into hospital for 10 days, and it took her an entire year to properly recover! Fortunately no permanent impairments or prolonged illness was caused.
http://www.justgiving.com/Helen-Lever
Chris Loxston
Chris had meningitis C as a baby, at the age of 6 months. His parents had a rough time because of this and he now wants to run to help the foundation.
David Mackenzie
David had meningococcal septicaemia when he was a student in November 1991, aged 21. He was on a ventilator for days, but thankfully survived with minor after effects. He has been donating to us for years, and wants to carry on by doing this and raising money in the process.
http://www.justgiving.com/Davidmackenzie2
Laura Magness
Laura is running to raise money in memory of Bethany Smith who passed away aged only 18months in 2001
Simon Mart
A very close family friend of Simon, Daniel Streeter, had meningococcal septicaemia and died in 1999. His sister and friend have raised a lot of money, so Simon wants to do the same as this was a very upsetting time for everyone involved and they want to raise money to remember him and raise awareness and help to eradicate meningitis.
Maria McCarter
Her uncle and daughter had meningitis and fortunately survived. However her granddaughter, Ava, who was almost 9 months old had meningitis and septicaemia and died of it in hospital. She has been involved in many fundraising events since and would therefore like to run the marathon and raise money that way.
Alan Mitchell
Alan’s family friend, Daniel Penfold, died at the age of 16 from meningitis. Meningitis Research Foundation worked closely with Daniel’s parents since his death to raise money. Alan would like to partake in the marathon to continue to raise funds because Daniel’s death affected him a lot, so would like to help others going through the same things.
Niamh Mulcahy
A friend of Niamh’s has suffered from meningitis and septicaemia , and because she is Irish she wanted to do something that was involved with the ROI as well as the UK.
Daniel Redhead
Daniel contracted meningitis as a baby, and ended up in intensive care, but survived with no side effects. His cousin contracted bacterial meningitis and was also admitted to intensive care, but again, thankfully survived. He therefore wants to run to try and improve the survival rate of sufferers, by getting the Foundation more funds to do so.
Anthony Spackman
A very close family friend of Simon, Daniel Streeter, had meningococcal septicaemia and died in 1999. His sister and friend have raised a lot of money, so Simon wants to do the same as this was a very upsetting time for everyone involved and they want to raise money to remember him and raise awareness and help to eradicate meningitis.
Kieran Thornton
Kieran had a personal experience of meningitis when he was just a few weeks old. He was only in hospital for a short time and he was very ill. As he will never have the opportunity to thank the doctors and nurses for saving his life, he wants to raise money for the Meningitis Research Foundation instead, to give something back and say thank you in some way.
Elizabeth Whitney
Elizabeth’s son, Luke, died in August 2000 of meningitis and septicaemia. Elizabeth and her daughter have held a few fundraisers for us and they hold a regular football tournament called ‘The Whitney Charity Cup’. Losing Luke within 3 hours of arriving at the hospital was a shock and raising money to research ways of this stopping this affecting so many other people and their families, she believes, is a worthwhile cause. She knows that Luke would be proud of her doing the marathon for him, so this is spurring her on.
http://www.justgiving.com/Liz-Whitney0
Marc Wicks
Marc’s brother had meningitis when he was younger; thankfully they diagnosed him before it was too late. Marc’s brother has raised money for MRF before, so Marc thought he would also take the opportunity to raise money for MRF, as it is such an excellent charity that will help continue to help others.