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About us
Breaking news (15.03.2013)
We are excited to announce that we will be merging with the Meningitis Trust from April 2013. Find out more here.
Meningitis UK's vision
Meningitis UK is a national charity based in Bristol. Our sole focus is on prevention and funding lifesaving research to eradicate all forms of meningitis. Meningitis is a terrifying disease which can kill in less than four hours and tragically is most prevalent in children and young people.
Sadly, the disease strikes with incredible speed and can be very difficult to detect as its symptoms are so similar to the common cold and flu. There are also times when people show no, or very few, symptoms. For all these reasons, we believe that prevention is the only way to truly eradicate the disease.
Meningitis affects thousands of people in the UK every year and devastates families and whole communities, so developing a vaccine will make a huge difference to countless lives.
The history of Meningitis UK
Meningitis UK was established in 1999 to fund a £500,000 state-of-the-art dedicated meningitis research laboratory in the University of Bristol's School of Medical Sciences.
The charity's Founder, Steve Dayman, tragically lost his 14-month old son Spencer to meningitis and meningococcal septicaemia in 1982. Steve has since dedicated his life to the meningitis cause, working tirelessly to raise funds to find a vaccine which could change the fate of others who might otherwise find themselves in the same terrible position.
The Spencer Dayman Meningitis Laboratories - named in memory of Spencer - were officially opened in April 2002, and now house a two and a half million pound investment into meningitis research. After the successful completion of this project, the charity adopted the working name of Meningitis UK and decided to focus solely on the development of vaccines to protect against all forms of meningitis. Since this time, Meningitis UK has invested £2.6 million into meningitis research across the UK and is now the leading charity solely focussed on supporting research into the development of meningitis vaccines in the UK.
Find out more about Steve's involvement with the meningitis cause (pdf).
Read about the experiences that Steve and his wife Gloria went through when they lost their son Spencer.
Past breakthroughs
Since Steve first got involved with the meningitis cause, a number of significant breakthroughs have been made in combating the disease. These include the development of the Hib vaccine which was introduced into the Childhood Immunisation Programme in the UK in 1992, the meningitis C vaccine in 1999, and a vaccine to protect against pneumococcal meningitis in 2006. These vaccines have been incredibly successful and have saved thousands of lives.
Visit our research section to find out more about the impact that the vaccines have made.
Future challenges
Although fantastic progress has been made over the last 20 years, there is still no vaccine available to protect against all forms of meningitis and associated diseases, including the most common form in the UK, meningococcal group B, and other forms such as Streptococcal Group B. It is also vital to monitor existing vaccines and to keep improving them. Our researchers are working hard across the UK on various studies to achieve overall aim of eradicating all forms of the disease.
Visit our research section to find out more about our current research.
Remember your loved ones
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