A MENINGITIS survivor is leading a campaign to highlight the disease.

Huddersfield teenager George Lane has survived meningitis four times and is urging people to trust their instincts if they believe they have the symptoms.

Cases of meningitis traditionally peak in February and George is backing Meningitis UK’s campaign advising people to understand the symptoms.

The 18-year-old head boy at Shelley College was rushed to hospital three times when he was six, twice with meningococcal meningitis and once with the more aggressive pneumococcal bug.

After 11 years, George thought meningitis belonged firmly in his past but in August, his immune system came under attack again by pneumococcal meningitis.

He said: “I developed a really bad headache and hoped it would go away.

“When I was younger I began to recognise what a meningitis headache felt like, but as so much time had lapsed, alarm bells weren’t ringing.

“I went to bed with a bad headache and then started being sick every half hour. I had a temperature but luckily my mum kept checking on me and when I then became delirious she called my dad into my room.

“The ambulance arrived and because of my history I was given antibiotics before we left the house. I think that is the reason I am still here now. The earlier you treat it, the more likely you are to be okay.”