By Jordan Coussins,Swnsjakemj jake Meeus-Jones

Copyright birminghammail

A university graduate tragically passed away from meningitis mere days after his symptoms began, which his family initially dismissed as freshers’ flu. Lucas Martin, who was just 21 years old, died on 12 September 2023, less than a week after he started feeling unwell. His older brother, Connor, 29, is now striving to raise awareness about meningitis, after the family initially attributed Lucas’ severe headaches and fever-like symptoms to fresher’s flu, a term often used to describe various illnesses that affect students during the first few weeks of the new academic year. Connor, who works as a software engineer, said: “He had no distinct signs of any illness.” Read more: Tattooist who went viral in flag video says ‘idiots’ He added: “He became poorly a week or so before he was admitted to hospital and we all thought it was the equivalent of freshers flu.” He further explained: “He was up in his room a lot of the time and we weren’t monitoring him on a super close basis unfortunately.” He continued: “We and he just assumed he had a bad bout of the flu.” Connor also mentioned: “He would go up and down and we’d think he was on the mend and then he’d regress again, but never to a point where we were seriously concerned.” He pointed out: “There’s a set list of symptoms with meningitis and he didn’t have the rash or an aversion to light – the rest are typical flu symptoms.” Lucas had recently graduated from the University of Liverpool with a degree in international business. Connor has questioned whether his brother’s hard-working nature could have triggered an initial viral infection. After five days of feeling unwell, Lucas’ dad, Brett, called him and was alarmed when he heard his son “mumbling and not making sense”. Lucas had remained at their Isle of Man residence, assuring everyone he was alright, while Connor had returned to his Birmingham home and their parents were visiting another brother, Bradley, in Edinburgh. Upon finding Lucas in a dreadful condition, his uncle alerted the rest of the family who immediately rushed back home. Lucas was then urgently transported to hospital where he was diagnosed with meningitis and placed into an induced coma. Tragically, Lucas never regained consciousness and passed away a few days later. Connor shared: “He was home for the summer and working out his next steps in life. “He was working for our uncle doing part time work and a number of other jobs. “He was working hard so whether that contributed to it at all, I don’t know. “We describe him as a force of nature. “He was very entrepreneurial, and he could’ve set his mind to anything and he would have made a success of it. “Just a very driven, personable young man. “He was taken too soon.” After discovering Lucas had meningitis, Connor admits he and his family were still “in denial.” He added: “We all rushed home and we got told it could have been meningitis and I think we were in denial that was life-threatening. “But that was it, none of us ever spoke to him again. “He was put in an induced coma and on life support as there was fluid on the brain. “It was a horrific ordeal for all of us.” Connor now hopes his brother’s story will encourage others to seek medical attention if they have any concerns. He expressed: “I think the one thing that could have maybe saved him was just us insisting that it could be something else – it didn’t really close our minds until he was in the ambulance. “I want kids of university age to have it in the back of their minds that if they get poorly don’t just always be dismissive. “If you’re worried, take action. We work hard not to blame ourselves in any way. “It’s not like we had a moment where we thought it was meningitis, and we didn’t act on it, we just didn’t think of it.” You can learn more about Lucas’ story and support the charity established in his honour here: https://www.lookys-aid.org/.