Sister's urgent plea over MenB vaccine as healthy brother, 18, dies after festival

Student George Zographou was too excited about going to his first festival to let feeling poorly hold him back. Confiding in his big sister Nicole Zographou that he was feeling a fluey, George, 18, brushed it off, as she helped him pack for his trip with his mates to Newquay’s Boardmasters surf and music festival.

With no idea that he had a deadly meningococcal infection, driving from their Bristol home, he became increasingly unwell, developing a pain in his foot. Overnight his symptoms worsened and he began vomiting uncontrollably - his foot, by now, so painful he could no longer walk unaided.

Within hours, he collapsed, suffering a cardiac arrest and catastrophic brain injury – a victim of meningitis B, a potentially fatal bug which targets teenagers and young adults. Five days later, George’s family took the heartbreaking decision to turn off his life support.

That was nine years ago, in August 2017. Ever since, Nicole, 38, of Cardiff, has campaigned to raise awareness of MenB. She says: “If George hadn’t got meningitis B, he would be with us today. He would be 28, enjoying a good career, having finished university. 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 anymore without him.

“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 report said the only thing that would have saved him was a vaccination. That's what it said on his death report.”

But a one-off programme offering a million youngsters a two-dose vaccination - available at local pharmacies as part of a one-off NHS programme - has had a worryingly low uptake. The scheme was launched in England in June this year and in Scotland and Wales in July. Students in all three nations are urged to book their jabs at local pharmacies.

The initiative came after the UK's largest and fastest-growing meningitis B outbreak in Kent this year and two further "unusual" clusters in Weymouth and Reading. The outbreaks left three teenagers dead - two in Kent and one in Oxfordshire. But NHS data suggests only one in four of those eligible have been vaccinated against the potentially fatal disease.

Jabs are available to young people who were in Year 13 during the 2025/26 academic year, first-time university students under 25, who will be living in halls or other residential accommodation, and international students under 25 starting at uni this year. Warning young people that vaccinations are imperative, Nicole, a senior health public practitioner, says: “Don't think you're invincible. Get the jabs and stay safe.”

Her warning comes after two teens were hospitalised with meningitis B in Suffolk earlier this month. Remembering her brother, she says: “George felt a little unwell. Five days later he was dead. That is how quickly this disease can take hold.

“That’s what is so frightening about meningitis. It can start with symptoms that seem ordinary. You might not realise how seriously ill someone is until they suddenly deteriorate so quickly, they cannot be treated.

“George was 18. He was young, healthy and enjoying his life.