A VICTIM of meningitis who only narrowly avoided death has urged others to guard against complacency.

Melanie Corney, who lives in Canford Heath, fell ill in 2001 when she was 26 and working at a school.

She recalls phoning in sick on a Friday morning with a sore throat before rapidly deteriorating.

“I had sickness, diarrhoea and a headache came on,” said Melanie. “Then I felt achy and developed a cough like I had the flu.

“Come Monday the doctor came out to see me and she said I had a virus and prescribed some antibiotics.

“But then I started going downhill more, passing out several times and my headache – I can’t put it into words – the pain was horrendous.”

At this point Melanie was rushed to hospital, but medics once again missed the symptoms, telling her she had gastroenteritis.

Breathing difficulties ensued and it was a nurse who spotted a septicaemia rash on her legs and feet. “That was the point I remember being whizzed straight to resuscitation,” she added. “I was really struggling to breathe. The doctor came in and said they would have to put me on a machine to help me breathe.”

Melanie’s parents were told she had meningitis and septicaemia. Because of the delay in diagnosis, doctors predicted she had just a 30 per cent chance of survival and braced her parents for a heartbreaking goodbye.

Melanie said: “My major organs had completely shut down and the septicaemia had covered my lungs which was why I couldn’t breathe properly.

“They put me on life support because my body was using up all its energy to breathe and it needed to retain the energy to fight the disease.

“My parents had to come in to say goodbye but didn’t let on what they knew so as not to panic me.”

Melanie was on the life support machine for 10 days as doctors frantically pumped her with antibiotics.

Remarkably, she survived and three months later was close to returning to something resembling a normal life. However, to this day she still suffers with concentration problems, short-term memory loss, muscle weakness and severe headaches as a result of the disease.

And as part of meningitis awareness week she has been warning others to look out for the symptoms.

“One of the worst things people think is that you need to display all of the symptoms to have meningitis, but you don’t,” she added.

“People think it is something only children get but believe me – anyone can get it and at any age.”