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Total raised so far

144%

£1,445.00 of £1,000 target +£278.75 Gift Aid See breakdown

Recent donations

6 years ago

Everyone on the day of the jump!!

£150.00

+ £37.50 Gift Aid

6 years ago

Tony Anderson

£10.00

+ £2.50 Gift Aid

Well done Hollie

6 years ago

Nicole & Miles

£10.00

+ £2.50 Gift Aid

Very well done Holly! X

6 years ago

Gemma

£5.00

+ £1.25 Gift Aid

Go for it girl! Have to let me know how it went! X

6 years ago

Cara and Darren

£10.00

+ £2.50 Gift Aid

Good luck lovely. Enjoy it x

6 years ago

Katrina

£10.00

+ £2.50 Gift Aid

Good Luck Holly a fantastic achievement xxx

6 years ago

Laura kelly

£10.00

+ £2.50 Gift Aid

Good luck girl 💕

6 years ago

Karen Simpson

£10.00

+ £2.50 Gift Aid

Good luck!

6 years ago

Mark smith

£20.00

+ £5.00 Gift Aid

Good luck hols

7 years ago

Liesa

£50.00

+ £12.50 Gift Aid

good luck holly x

Holly's Sky Dive for Meningitis Now

Event date: 8th April 2017

My story

On Wednesday 4th January 2017 my life took a turn for the worst in a matter of hours. I was unexpectedly hit with the horrific disease, Meningococcal Bacterial Meningitis.
What started out as just any other day, soon ended up with me fighting for my life in Intensive Care.

I?d started the day off just the same as any other day but just a bit more excited than usual. My bags were packed and I was all ready to head off to Norway with work for 5 days of training and the yearly ABAX Awards event.
I?d had a pain in my groin all morning but thought nothing of it. We soon left for the airport and although I wasn?t feeling 100%, I wasn?t worried. It was probably just nerves.
We got to the airport and as I got off the coach, I turned to one of my friends, James, and said that my groin was hurting to walk on, he reassured me that it would be ok and he?ll walk with me if I wanted to take it slow. We had a cigarette and made our way to the check in.
Within a matter of moments when queuing up for the check-in, I had taken a funny turn. I was delusional and felt faint, I wasn?t making sense and my back was killing me. All I could think about doing was laying down. My friend, Annaliese, took me to sit down and went to get a few of the others that I was travelling with. I was hot and cold, shaking and felt faint. All I kept thinking was I just need to lay down, I need to get through security and lay down somewhere, so that?s what I did.
Once through security, my friends got some paramedics over to double check I was ok to fly. My breathing was getting harder and my vision was blurry. I insisted I didn?t need medical advice but being good friends, they made sure it was done before letting me fly.

The paramedics deemed me unfit to fly due to low blood pressure and at this point I was so annoyed, I didn?t want to make a scene and I just wanted to get there.
My office Manager, Janice, had heard about what was happening and assured me that I was not going to be flying that day. She explained to me that she was more than happy to fly with me tomorrow if I was feeling better and on that note, she got us both in a taxi and we headed to A&E in Peterborough just for precautions.

We were met at A&E by my boyfriend Matty so Janice soon left and asked me to let her know how I was later on. We got seen to by nurses after being told it was a 4 hour wait to see a Doctor, we only waited half an hour. My bloods were taken and urine sample was done. I was told they were all perfectly normal and I just needed some rest so on that note we left for home with the plan to visit the GP in the morning if I didn?t feel better. We stopped off at Mcdonalds on the way home as I hadn?t eaten all day, big mistake! Shortly after eating I was throwing up on the side of the road and felt so sick. I just needed to lay down, my back was killing me and my whole left side had started to go heavy.

I got home and went straight into bed falling asleep instantly.
I woke up at 11pm. The only way I can describe the pain for the next few hours was like an egg boiling, wanting to be cracked open. The pressure on my skull was something I cannot describe. I was tossing and turning, hot then cold, I was shaking constantly. It felt as though I was having some sort of epileptic fit. I woke my boyfriend a couple of times during the night from vomiting and screaming. By 4.30am, enough was enough. I was screaming and my body couldn?t take this pain any longer. I was desperate for the pain to stop, my body was crying for water I was so dehydrated. All I remember thinking was I?m gunna die of thirst, Im so thirsty, I need water! But my body was throwing everything back up. The lights were turned on and that?s when we knew something was wrong.
Matty was asking what the rash was, that?s when I looked towards my left wrist only slightly being able to open my eyes, I saw it. It was like a prickly heat rash with bruising behind it. I screamed for my mum and Matty went to go and get her.

The next few hours were a bit of a blur, I just remember begging my mum for the ambulance to hurry up. I could feel myself dying of dehydration. I couldn?t keep still, vomiting and screaming from the pain. My back, neck and left arm were dead and I felt so weak, I was in and out of concussion and all I kept hearing was ?Potential Meningitis?. I arrived at Peterborough Hospital within 11 minutes and had 4 or 5 doctors waiting for me in Resus. I was so confused, only 5 hours ago I?d had my bloods done and everything had been passed off as ok. Now I was struggling to breathe and being told I could potentially have Meningitis.
I don?t remember much of what happened next, but I remember my mums face as I looked over at her stroking my hand. I felt like I was going to die and I didn?t care. I was in so much pain.

The next day I woke up in intensive care, I was wired up to 4 or 5 different machines keeping me alive. I was told that I had contracted Bacterial Meningococcal Meningitis and was very lucky to be alive and if I had come in only 2 hours later, I would most probably have been dead. I was in so much shock and spent the next few days being pumped full of fluids, steroids, antibiotics, morphine etc. My bloods were being monitored closely due to abnormalities found from the virus. The number of white blood cells had increased and my glucose levels had started to decrease in the cerebrospinal fluid around my brain.
At one point my blood pressure had dropped to less than 60% the normal requirement and this meant I was now on a support machine.

The doctors were unsure if I was going to have any long term brain damage or any other effects from the virus so it was just a waiting game to see when my body would start reacting positively to the meds. Luckily they did!
See what I didn?t know was when you get meningitis, the bacteria that have invaded your bloodstream move across to infect your 'meninges' - the membranes that surround and protect your brain and spinal cord. The meninges are filled with a liquid called cerebrospinal fluid which is there to bathe the brain and cushion it against physical damage when you hit your head. Meningococcal bacteria can multiply freely within this fluid, and there they release poisons, causing inflammation and swelling in the meninges and the brain tissue itself. This increases pressure on your brain, producing symptoms of meningitis such as headache, stiff neck and dislike of bright lights. As the disease progresses, you become drowsy, confused, and delirious, you may have seizures and eventually lose consciousness. From these symptoms, the virus can take only 4 hours to kill you by poisoning your entire body. It?s one of the quickest and most silent of killers and I believe, if I hadn?t had woken up that evening in so much pain, I would never have woken up as so many others haven?t.

I was discharged after 7 days in Intensive Care and spent the next few days travelling to and from hospital for infusions. I am so lucky I have the people in my life that I do, with their help I am making such good progress every day.

Im fundraising for Meningitis Now because about 3,200 people get bacterial meningitis and associated septicaemia in the UK each year. That?s very few. 1 in 10 of those people die. If more people knew what to look out for and were quicker to act, more lives would be saved! I am lucky enough to say I haven?t lost any limbs or been badly brain damaged. My hearing has been damaged slightly and I get stressed out in loud situations now as it causes my brain so much confusion, my body feels a lot weaker and I lose my train of thought and concentration very quickly, I forget what Im talking about sometimes and my vision isn?t as good as it was. My liver has been badly damaged from the blood poisoning and I get out of breathe so quickly now but Doctors say all these things will get better in time. Im one of the lucky ones and Im so happy to say I survived when so many others aren?t so lucky! Thank you to everyone who has made my recovery a happy one and would really appreciate it, if you helped me raise money for the Charity that helped save my life!


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Holly Jackson is fundraising with

UK Skydiving Adventures

Charity number: EC14825

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