Wrexham Brothers Who Contracted Meningitis a Year Apart Urge Young People to Know the Symptoms

Two brothers from Wrexham who fell ill with meningitis within a year of each other have spoken of their luck at surviving the disease, and are now campaigning to make sure young people recognise the warning signs that nearly cost them their lives.

Saul and Drew Darlington, now aged 29 and 26, were teenagers when they contracted the infection just under twelve months apart. At first the family assumed the double diagnosis was a strange coincidence, but testing later revealed that both men carry a rare immunodeficiency called properdin deficiency, which leaves them more vulnerable to certain infections, including meningitis.

Saul was 17 and away on a school trip when he first began to feel unwell. He recalled feeling cold and finding bright light uncomfortable, symptoms that at first seemed unremarkable. Everything changed when a purple rash appeared on his skin, prompting his family to take him to A&E.

"It all happened very fast," Saul said. He described how his mother's use of the word meningitis made clear how serious the situation was, and how frightening and unfamiliar the whole experience felt. He spent a week in hospital receiving treatment, an ordeal he described as really scary given how young he was at the time.

Saul's illness would have been far worse, he believes, had he simply gone to bed. "The day I had it, if I had gone to sleep that night, I'd have probably died," he said, underlining how quickly the infection can overwhelm a patient who does not receive urgent medical care.

Almost exactly a year later, Drew, then 16, started to feel ill while revising for his GCSEs. His only initial symptom was a high temperature, with nothing else obviously wrong. The situation escalated rapidly after a visit to his GP.

"When I left the house I had no rashes on me at all. When the doctor lifted up my top, I had a big rash all over my chest and belly," Drew said. He also developed purple dots on the roof of his mouth, another telltale sign of the disease.

The doctor's swift decision to call an ambulance was crucial. Drew spent two weeks on the children's ward at Wrexham Maelor hospital, where his brother Joel was among the family members who visited regularly. For the first 48 hours his condition was touch and go before he gradually began to recover. He lost a considerable amount of weight and it took months before he felt fully well again.

"I'm really thankful the doctor called the ambulance straight away when he noticed the rash — those quick decisions potentially saved our lives," Drew said, highlighting how much depends on early recognition by both families and frontline health professionals.

Even as the family coped with Drew's illness, Saul found himself puzzling over the odds of two brothers being struck by the same disease so close together. "I did think it's a bit weird isn't it really that we've both caught it, what are the odds of that?" he said. It was only later, through medical tests, that the underlying reason emerged: properdin deficiency, a rare condition that affects the immune system's ability to fight off infection.

Both brothers have since recovered, but their health requires ongoing management. They now take daily antibiotics to reduce the risk of further infections, a routine that serves as a constant reminder of how close they came to losing their lives.

Their experience has also prompted them to support meningitis charities and to speak publicly about the importance of awareness. Saul took on the London Marathon in 2025 on behalf of the Meningitis Research Foundation, using the challenge both to raise funds and to draw attention to a disease that many people associate only with babies and young children.

The brothers, who enjoy hiking and running, are now planning to take on an Ironman challenge next year to continue supporting meningitis charities. Their message is aimed particularly at young people, who may dismiss early symptoms as tiredness or the after-effects of a night out.

"A lot of the symptoms just display themselves as being a bit tired or hungover, and it's so much more than that," Saul said. Drew added: "You've just got to be vigilant. You don't have much time when dealing with meningitis and every hour counts in potentially saving your life."

Their call for vigilance comes amid heightened concern about meningitis B in the UK. Nearly 20,000 young people in Wales have been vaccinated through catch-up clinics following a deadly outbreak of the infection in Kent earlier this year, an incident that renewed focus on how quickly the disease can spread among adolescents and young adults.

Meningitis is an infection of the protective membranes surrounding the brain and spinal cord, and it can develop suddenly. According to guidance cited by the NHS and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, symptoms may appear in any order and do not always all present at once. They can include a rash that does not fade when pressed with a glass, a sudden high fever, a severe and worsening headache, a stiff neck, vomiting and diarrhoea, joint and muscle pain, dislike of bright lights, very cold hands and feet, seizures, confusion or delirium, and extreme sleepiness or difficulty waking.

For the Darlington family, those clinical descriptions are not abstract. The purple rash that sent Saul to A&E and the marks that spread across Drew's chest and the roof of his mouth were the visible signs of an infection that can kill within hours if it is not treated. Their story stands as a reminder that meningitis does not discriminate by age, and that acting on suspicion rather than waiting for certainty can be the difference between life and death.