'We thought my brother had freshers' flu but he died days later'

A university graduate tragically died from meningitis just days after falling ill, with his family initially believing he had freshers' flu. Lucas Martin passed away on September 12, 2023, aged 21 - less than a week after first feeling poorly.

His brother Connor, 29, is now campaigning to raise awareness about meningitis after the family mistakenly attributed Lucas' severe headaches and fever to freshers' flu - the common term for various bugs that affect students during their opening weeks at university.

Connor, a software engineer, said: "He had no distinct signs of any illness. He became poorly a week or so before he was admitted to hospital and we all thought it was the equivalent of freshers' flu.

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"He was up in his room a lot of the time and we weren't monitoring him on a super close basis unfortunately. We and he just assumed he had a bad bout of the flu.

"He would go up and down and we'd think he was on the mend and then he'd regress again, but never to a point where we were seriously concerned. There's a set list of symptoms with meningitis and he didn't have the rash or an aversion to light - the rest are typical flu symptoms."

Lucas had recently completed his degree in international business at the University of Liverpool, and Connor has wondered whether his brother's dedicated work ethic may have sparked an initial viral infection. After five days of being unwell, Lucas' dad, Brett, rang him - and could hear his son "mumbling and not making sense". Lucas had remained at their Isle of Man residence, assuring everyone he was alright, while Connor had returned to his Birmingham home and their parents were visiting another brother, Bradley, in Edinburgh.

After Lucas was found in a dreadful condition by his uncle, the rest of the family hurried back home. Lucas was rushed to hospital with sirens blaring, where he was diagnosed with meningitis and placed into an induced coma. Tragically, Lucas' family never heard his voice again as he passed away just a few days later.

Connor said: "He was home for the summer and working out his next steps in life. He was working for our uncle doing part-time work and a number of other jobs.

"He was working hard, so whether that contributed to it at all, I don't know. We describe him as a force of nature.

"He was very entrepreneurial, he could've set his mind to anything and he would have made a success of it. Just a very driven, personable young man. He was taken too soon."

After discovering Lucas had meningitis, Connor admitted that he and his family were still "in denial."

He added: "We all rushed home and we got told it could have been meningitis and I think we were in denial that was life-threatening. But that was it, none of us ever spoke to him again.

"He was put in an induced coma and on life support as there was fluid on the brain. It was a horrific ordeal for all of us."

Connor now hopes that sharing his brother's story will encourage others to seek medical attention if they are concerned.

He said: "I think the one thing that could have maybe saved him was just us insisting that it could be something else - it didn't really cross our minds until he was in the ambulance. I want kids of university age to have it in the back of their minds that if they get poorly don't just always be dismissive.

"If you're worried, take action. We work hard not to blame ourselves in any way. It's not like we had a moment where we thought it was meningitis, and we didn't act on it, we just didn't think of it."