One-to-one support

The Meningitis Trust's one-to-one service gives you contact with someone who has an understanding of the trauma you have been through and the feelings you are experiencing, because they have had a similar experience.

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Contact is through email or telephone and is provided by a volunteer who is registered as a one-to-one provider with the Meningitis Trust. Many of our volunteers have benefited from the service themselves and want to help others through sharing their experience.

Why do we provide the one-to-one service?

The key to this service is the personal approach which helps people understand they are not the only ones who have been affected by meningitis. Sharing stories can relieve isolation and help you through recovery. Some people make just one call to their contact, and gain the information or reassurance they need, others remain in touch on a regular basis and form a lasting bond.

Who can benefit from one-to-ones?

Anyone who has had an experience of meningitis and wants to be in touch with someone who has had a similar experience can benefit from the service. You may want to ask a specific question about the disease and its after-effects, or want to gain reassurance from someone who has ‘been there’ themselves. The one-to-one service can help people make sense of their new lives and changes in their relationships through the help and understanding of people who have faced similar difficulties themselves.

How do we provide one-to-one support?

If you would like to be put in touch with someone who has had a similar experience, please call our freephone 24-hour nurse-led helpline on 0808 80 10 388 or fill out an enquiry form and we will come back to you to discuss the service with you.  Once a suitable one-to-one provider has been asked to provide contact, you will be given their details. Contact is then made by telephone or email and continued as required.

Ann-Marie Cooper’s daughter, Sophia, had meningitis in 2006. The Meningitis Trust put Ann-Marie and Claire Florit in touch. Ann-Marie says:

“Through your one–to-one service I emailed Claire who lived locally. We corresponded on a regular basis and decided to meet up. Since then we have developed a friendship and understanding. It was a tremendous healing process to be able to fully open up to someone who could understand what I’d been through.”

Claire’s daughter, Sophie, also had meningitis at the same time. Claire says:

“I would never have met another person who has had meningitis in their family if it wasn’t for the Trust. So many other people don’t understand what we have been through. When we met for the first time we just hugged, it was quite emotional."

If you are interested in registering as a volunteer one to one provider please find out more here.