| Nature of Enquiry | Hi my name is Aaron and unfortunately my brother passed away at the age of 3 to Meningococcal Septicaemia. Ryan was taken to Bristol Children's Hospital in the early hours of Monday 12th April, after having had a fun filled day playing in the garden, running around at rugby, and leading his sisters pony to the field. He became ill on Sunday night having showed no signs of illness during the day, he spent the night in bed with his parents getting restless and his temperature increasing rapidly he also became less responsive as the night went on. Due to his mothers knowledge of working with children (nursery manager) she could tell this wasn't something minor and took him to the hospital at approximately 6.30 am, at this point a rash was not present, however within 2 hours of being at hospital a rash had taken over most of his body. Doctors were shocked to see the rash appear before their eyes so gave him anti-biotics for meningitis and was sedated. By Monday lunchtime Ryan was on dialysis and his breathing was being assisted, he was then kept stable via life support, unfortunately he did not improve and the next day the family had to make the heart wrenching decision to switch off the life support as Ryan's illness had proceeded to damage one side of his brain and restricted the circulation which could have meant possible loss of upper and lower limbs (the doctor who was treating Ryan said minimum would be the loss of hands and feet).
As a family we hate for anyone else to go through what we have therefore we are doing all we can to raise money for MeningitisUK to help find a vaccine for Meningitis B, as we feel this would have been the only thing that could have saved our little boy.
We are currently in the middle of raising money in any way possible for example, family and friends are taking part in the MeningitisUK Summer Stroll on the 19th June 2010, there are over 100 people taking part in the stroll with at least 60% there for Ryan as he was a much loved child by so many, from this we have been contacted by ITV West for a small interview. So far we have raised over £6,000 through family and friends support selling wrist bands via local schools and small businesses and by generous donations.
I am organising a sponsored football tournament on behalf of my brother involving local teams, with trophies and medals up for grabs. We are also organising a raffle/auction with gifts donated by companies such as Halfords, Nando's, Bowlplex, Vue Cinema, Avon Valley Country Park, Harvesters, Bristol Balloons, Skate and Ski, Butlins, Jump, Motaman and with other companies offering gifts.
I am planning to do a skydive for MeningitisUK as I feel this is the closest I will get to my brother for now.
We are not only doing this to raise money but also to raise awareness for Meningitis and to explain the symptoms as they can be very much mistaken for everyday illnesses.
If there is anything you can donate however big or small it would be very much appreciated.
Thank you for your time and below is a link to a newspaper article and Ryan's forever fund.
http://www.thisisbristol.co.uk/news/Parents-aim-make-sure-little-Ryan-did-die-vain/article-2060199-detail/article.html
http://meningitisuk.tributefunds.com/fund/Ryan+Johnson/
Yours faithfully,
Aaron Johnson
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