I was a first-year student at Leeds University.
In that first term I had spent most evenings with the uni dance society. I was happily settling in to a new-found independence – meaning I cooked my own fry-ups.
And then suddenly that morning, my new life was swept away in a haze of vomiting, unconsciousness, blue lights and A&E.
Kat dressed up for the 2007 Freshers’ Ball
The way meningitis B can attack the body means that in some cases it turns to sepsis, and that’s what happened to me.
While I was sitting in A&E, a doctor spotted the start of a rash on my wrist and knew straightaway what was happening.
My Harry Potter pyjamas were cut off with scissors to reveal the rash had already spread over my body.
What follows is a blur.
I was placed in an induced coma while my body was at war with itself.
My immune system went into overdrive to try to get rid of the bacteria – but there was collateral damage when instead of just fighting the infection, it began to attack vital tissues.
Blood rushed away from my limbs to my internal organs to save them.
“We’re going to have to amputate your leg”
My parents and brother arrived at the hospital to find me quarantined and strapped up to an entire room’s worth of machines.
That night they were told there was nothing more the