Father pays tribute to ‘kind-hearted’ son who died after meningitis outbreak
Student dies in Reading meningitis outbreak as contacts offered antibiotics
Lewis Waters, a 17-year-old student at Henley College in Oxfordshire, died from meningitis after falling ill on Tuesday morning and rapidly developing sepsis.
His father, Simon Waters, paid tribute to his “kind-hearted” son, expressing the family’s devastation at the sudden loss.
Two other students, from Reading Blue Coat School and Highdown Secondary School, are also being treated for meningitis, prompting the UK Health Security Agency to offer antibiotics to close contacts.
The UKHSA confirmed that the infection is not the same strain of meningitis B linked to a fatal outbreak in Kent earlier this year.
Liberal Democrat MP Freddie van Mierlo and the National Union of Students have called on the Government to implement a wider catch-up vaccination programme for young adults against meningitis B.
