Nicole Zographou, whose 18-year-old brother George died from meningitis B in 2017, has urged students returning to university to get vaccinated against the disease after several recent cases among young people. George fell ill while travelling to the Boardmasters festival in Newquay, and his condition deteriorated rapidly, with a coroner later concluding that vaccination was the only thing that could have saved his life.

George, a student at St Brendon's Sixth Form College in Bristol, began feeling unwell before setting off but continued to the festival. Within a day he developed foot pain, vomiting and confusion, then suffered a heart attack and brain injury; he died five days later after his family took the decision to withdraw life support. Nicole highlighted other recent cases, including two students killed in a Kent outbreak in March, an 18-year-old who died in Oxfordshire in May, and teenagers hospitalised in Suffolk last week, as she pleaded with students to check their vaccination status before returning to university.