Mum of meningitis victim wants schools to help spot early symptoms

A woman who lost her 17-year-old son to meningitis in 2024 wants schools to do more to help spot the warning signs early.

Michael Panitz, from Shrewsbury, had come home feeling ill after working a shift at Nando's and his mother assumed he had picked up a bug.

But Hayley Ellis said he had deteriorated quickly and within 20 minutes of her getting home, ambulance staff told her there was nothing they could do for him and his heart had stopped.

She believes schools should be encouraging older children to take their health more seriously and tell an adult if they had concerns.

She has also called for families to be aware of the symptoms.

Thousands of people have been vaccinated in Kent following the deaths of two young people.

Ellis said the outbreak had brought back memories and that said her son's death had come "out of the blue".

His mother said: "I thought he'd got food poisoning, or because it was November, maybe the norovirus."

She advised him to go to bed and sleep it off.

She said it started on 22 November and remembered: "He'd been to work, he'd been laughing and joking with my husband before he went."

Later that day he phoned to say he had been sick and was on his way home.

Her son was sick again in the night and when she saw him the next morning, before leaving for work, she noticed he was covered in spots.

Then, her husband, Michael's stepfather, called her at work to say he had got worse and that he had called 999.

She said she ran home and got back to find two ambulances and the Midland Air Ambulance outside.

"Within 20 minutes of being home they were telling me there was nothing they could do, his heart had stopped," she said.

Meningitis B is the most common cause of meningococcal meningitis in the UK, but routine vaccinations were only rolled out in 2015.

Ellis said she wanted to see it more widely available, and not just for students.

Follow BBC Shropshire on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.