My daughter Kathryn is now 25-years-old and studying forensic science at university, and over the past 16 years or so I have often asked myself the question “What if?”

Katie (as we call her) was always lively. She had enough energy to put her on overdrive from the moment she got up in the morning until she went to bed. The only problem she had as a child was a form of infant eczema which caused her to scratch and overheat.

In 1999, she was eight-years-old and still at primary school, and at this time there were a lot of features on television and in the press about meningitis and looking for the telltale signs, and as a result, we were very conscious of the fact that meningitis seemed to be coming increasingly prevalent.

When her school broke up for the summer holidays, we expected her to be on the go from first thing as usual, but on this particular day all she wanted to do was sleep and we could not get her to eat or drink anything. Katie said she was tired and felt sick, and that was the reason for her not wanting to eat. When I came home from work that evening Katie was still in bed and my wife was becoming more and more concerned, so I called the local doctors surgery to see if I could get someone to come and have a look at her.

I spoke to the duty doctor, who having listened to the symptoms, told me that she was just off colour and that if she was still not feeling well the following day to make an appointment for her to be seen. I explained that I knew my daughter and I was concerned, but the doctor told me we were being paranoid and he was very dismissive. He actually seemed to take exception when I sarcastically congratulated him on being able to make a diagnosis without seeing the patient, and I did say a few more choice words, but ultimately he was not going to come out.

Unhappy with that response, we made the decision to take her to the Royal Berks Hospital just to be sure.

Whilst we were waiting to be seen at the hospital, Katie perked up again, which made us wonder if she might just have been under the weather for the day. However, as we were now at the hospital we decided we would stay and have her checked over, just to be on the safe side.

Although she perked up for a while, it only lasted for about 10 minutes, at which point all she wanted to do was curl up and cuddle again. At no time did she show any symptoms of anything though, she was just tired, which we found concerning given what a livewire child she always was. When we went in to see the doctor and explained what we had observed, the symptoms, within minutes of examining her he told us she had ‘signs of meningitis’ – the dreaded words that no parent wants to hear.

Katie was very quickly admitted and taken upstairs, where they carried out a lumbar puncture and started treatment on the basis that she had contracted meningitis. They gave me and my wife a pill and I was advised to call into our local surgery at the first opportunity to advise them. They put Katie straight onto antibiotics and kept her separated from other patients on the ward.

I had to go to the doctor’s surgery the following day to advise them of the situation, where I was met by the doctor who I had spoken to the previous day. I have to say that when I told him that we had taken her to hospital, and what the diagnosis was, the look on his face said it all as he realised how serious it was.

Three days later, the results of the lumbar puncture came through and we were advised that Katie did have meningitis and was showing signs of having both strains. She was kept in for four or five days before being discharged.

Katie’s summer holidays were a complete washout, as the illness completely knocked the stuffing out of her and it took six months for her to show signs of returning to normal. She would get tired very easily, and we had to ask her school to call us to collect her if she fell asleep in class.

Fortunately, 16 years on, Katie is still with us and is relatively healthy, although she does suffer from depression which apparently can be a side-effect of meningitis.

Because someone may not show the symptoms we are all told to look for, it does not mean that they have not contracted meningitis.

As I say, to this day we still ask the question ‘What if?’

What if we had assumed she was just off colour? What if we had left it another day after calling the doctor and not made the decision to go to the hospital?

We were one of the lucky ones, and my heart goes out to those who have not been so lucky.

My advice based on experience is if in doubt, get to the doctor or hospital as soon as possible, and as Gaynor says on this site, if you suspect something is not right, even if being told it is, demand more tests and answers.

That parental instinct is key…don’t even let others convince you to go against it.