Meningitis mistaken for ‘freshers’ flu’: Graduate Lucas Martin died just days after symptoms began

A graduate who believed he had ‘freshers’ flu’ died just days after his symptoms first began. Lucas Martin died on September 12, 2023 - and less than a week after he began feeling unwell.

The 21-year-old’s heartbroken family has now issued a warning to students after Lucas was actually diagnosed with meningitis when he was admitted to hospital. His brother Connor, 29, is raising awareness around the deadly infection.

The term ‘freshers’ flu’ is used to describe a host of illnesses that strike down students during the first few weeks of a new university year but a number of symptoms often put down to this relatively harmless condition match that of meningitis which is far more serious.

Connor, a software engineer, said: "He had no distinct signs of any illness. 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 was up in his room a lot of the time and we weren't monitoring him on a super close basis unfortunately. We and he just assumed he had a bad bout of the flu.

"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. 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 just graduated from the University of Liverpool in international business and Connor has questioned whether his hard-working attitude triggered an initial viral infection.

Lucas had stayed in their Isle of Man home, insisting he was fine, whilst Connor had returned back to his house in Birmingham and his mum and dad were visiting his other brother, Bradley, in Edinburgh. After five days of feeling unwell, Lucas' dad, Brett, called him - and heard his son "mumbling and not making sense".

Lucas' uncle was then sent round and found him in an "awful state", so the rest of the family raced home. Lucas was then blue-lighted to hospital where he was diagnosed with meningitis and put in an induced coma. Heartbreakingly, Lucas' family never heard him speak again and he died just days later.

Connor said: "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 they found Lucas had meningitis, Connor says 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 wants his brother's story to encourage others to get seen if they are worried. He said: "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 read more about Lucas' story and support the charity set up in his name at the Looky’s Aid website.