The grieving sister of an 18-year-old sixth form student killed by meningitis B has issued a plea begging others to get vaccinated against the deadly disease.
Nicole Zographou’s baby brother George had excitedly set off to the Boardmasters surf and music festival in Newquay, but told his sister he was feeling ill beforehand.
Undeterred and determined to enjoy himself, young George and his friend drove off from Bristol, but on the journey his condition worsened.
He developed a pain in his foot and became increasingly woozy. Overnight, he began uncontrollably vomiting and could no longer walk by morning.
Unbeknownst to him, a meningococcal infection was ripping through his body at terrifying speed.
Hours later, he collapsed, suffering a heart attack and a catastrophic brain injury. He was rushed to hospital, where he was found to be a victim of meningitis B – a vicious bug which cruelly targets teenagers and young adults.
Five days on, his family was forced to make the brutal decision to turn off his life support. Sparkly-eyed, kind, funny, beautiful George was dead.
Nicole, 38, said: ‘He died in his peak. If George hadn’t got meningitis B, he would be with us today. He would be 28, enjoying a good career, having finished university, and still be having fun.
Nicole Zographou said her 18-year-old brother’s death from meningitis B ‘has bled into every part of my life.’ She added: ‘We were really close, and I miss him incredibly’
Nicole, a senior public health practitioner, urged young people to get vaccinated. She said: ‘Please check. Please ask. Please have the jabs and get protected. Please don’t make the mistake of thinking this won’t happen to you.’
‘His death has bled into every part of my life. We were really close, and I miss him incredibly. I’d give the world to have him back.’
The coroner’s reports stated that the only thing that would have saved George’s life would have been a vaccination, senior public health practitioner Nicole said.
She issued an urgent warning for students to get vaccinated ahead of the return to university later this month.
In a desperate plea, she added: ‘Please check. Please ask. Please have the jabs and get protected. Please don’t make the mistake of thinking this won’t happen to you.’
In March, two students aged 18 and 21 were killed by meningitis B in an outbreak in Kent which infected 21 people following a fateful club night out. Another 18-year-old was killed in Oxfordshire by the disease in May.
Last week, the teenagers in Suffolk were rushed to hospital with the same infection.
Nicole spoke further about her brother’s death in 2017: ‘George felt a little unwell. Five days later he was dead. That is how quickly this disease can take hold.
‘You cannot look at a healthy 18-year-old and imagine that they could be dead within days. That’s what is so frightening about meningitis.
‘It can start with symptoms that seem ordinary, and you might not realise how seriously ill someone is until they suddenly deteriorate so quickly that they cannot be treated.’
George Zographou said he had been feeling mildly ill before he set off to Boardmasters festival in 2017. Five days later his family were forced to shut off his life support after he was struck down by meningitis
Nicole said: ‘There were four of us in our happy family. Now we’re like a three-legged chair and we don’t really function very well any more without him’
Nicole added: ‘The coroner’s report said the only thing that would have saved him was a vaccination. That’s what it said on his on his death report.’
Nicole painfully recalled the day she last saw her brother – a student at St Brendon’s Sixth Form College in Bristol – before he was struck down by meningitis.
George was excited – excited for his first festival experience, even excited by the journey, having never driven on a motorway before.
She said: ‘He told me he was feeling a little unwell and I advised him not to push himself. I told him to make sure he sought help if he needed it, but he wasn’t feeling too bad, so none of us were too worried.’
Nicole was jetting off to Ibiza for a week on her own adventure, which she had been really looking forward to as well. So they said their goodbyes and parted ways.
Soon after arriving in Newquay, George was texting their parents -mum Elaine, now 73, and dad Andrew Zographou, now 59 – and Snapchatting Nicole in Ibiza to tell them he had started feeling very unwell.
The following evening, a call came that changed the family forever. George had gone into cardiac arrest and stopped breathing for 12 minutes.
Nicole said: ‘From the call, I learned he’d been blue-lighted to hospital, placed on life support and was found to have suffered a catastrophic brain injury.’
She rushed back home, getting the first flight back from Ibiza and arrived 10 hours later at her brother’s side, where he was being kept alive with a life support machine.
Nicole continued: ‘He was catastrophically brain dead. But we had no idea what was going on.
‘The doctors were asking, did he do any drugs? But George was not a risk taker and it could not have been that.
‘We found out after three days that it was Meningitis B, and his CT scan had shown he was never going to recover. So after five days, we took the only decision we could – to turn off his life-support machine.’
In a helpless moment, the family checked George’s vaccination records only to find he was not covered from the disease as they had thought. The vaccine required was not yet available in 2017.
Meningitis had already struck George’s school the year before, infecting two girls and killing one.
Well Pharmacy’s Deputy Superintendent Pharmacist Wendy Lee, warned: ‘George’s story is tragic, but sadly not an isolated case.
‘Although the Men B vaccine is now available free of charge for students from year 13, we are extremely concerned by its current slow uptake.
‘The new university term is now just weeks away, and we urge all eligible students to get themselves booked in at their local pharmacy for an injection that might just save their life.’
George collapsed at the festival after suffering a heart attack and he stopped breathing for 12 minutes. He had catastrophic brain injuries and died in hospital
Well Pharmacy’s Deputy Superintendent Pharmacist Wendy Lee warned: ‘George’s story is tragic, but sadly not an isolated case.’ adding she was ‘extremely concerned’ with the slow uptake of vaccines
The infection attacks the membranes surrounding your brain, inflaming them and putting dangerous pressure on the central nervous system.
Ms Lee said that the bacteria causing it can be carried harmlessly in the throat but can invade the bloodstream and cause meningitis and ‘become life-threatening extremely quickly.’
‘Around one in four 15–19-year-olds carry meningococcal bacteria in the back of their throat without knowing it,’ she said.
To protect against the disease, two doses of the vaccine are needed at least four weeks apart. Ms Lee added: ‘If you’ve already had your first, make sure you go back for your second appointment.’
There is currently a free NHS MenB catch-up programme offering free shots to teenagers and young adults ahead of the 2026/27 university year.
Young people born between 1 September 2007 and 31 August 2008 – the current Year 13 age group – can get it for free, Ms Lee said.
People born on or after 21 July 2001 who are starting university or certain residential further-education colleges for the first time in autumn 2026 are also eligible.
Nicole echoed her advice, adding: ‘You just don’t know whether you’re going to be one of those people who gets it or not. And in one in 10 cases it can be fatal, just like it was for George.
‘It’s meningitis season coming up. I wouldn’t ever take the risk. It’s a very effective vaccination once you have it. And up until the age of 25, you’ve got a much higher chance to catch it, especially when you’re going into university and you’re mixing with new people.
‘It really scares me that there are people starting university in meningitis season and yet people aren’t taking this on.
‘Please take some time to go and get vaccinated. Educate yourselves, speak to your GP, your nurses. If you’re worried, you’ve got any questions, educate yourself.
‘Don’t think you’re invincible. Get the jabs and stay safe.’
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