Jay Aston breaks down in tears recalling daughters meningitis battle We nearly lost her

Jay Aston breaks down as she details daughter’s meningitis battle

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Loose Women presenters Kaye Adams, Frankie Bridge, Katie Piper and Jane Moore, were joined by former Bucks Fizz singer Jay Aston as she raised awareness over the symptoms of meningitis after nearly losing her daughter. Jay recalled the moment she knew her daughter, Josie, had the virus and fought back the tears as she told her story.

From the moment Jay began to speak, she was visibly emotional speaking about Josie’s close call with death.

Kaye introduced Jay to the show and explained: “Now, less than four weeks ago, the Fizz’s singer Jay Aston’s 18-year-old daughter Josie was a picture of health.

“But after a sudden onset of bacterial meningitis, Jay was given the shocking news that Josie had a 50/50 chance of survival.

“Thankfully, Josie is doing much better, and Jay joins us now today to share the story and to raise awareness of bacterial meningitis.”

Jay replied: “Absolutely, she was the picture of health and the healthiest I have ever seen her, she was on a fitness kick and just looked glowing.

“Then literally overnight, well, we nearly lost her.”

Going into the details of what happened and how it began, Jay explained: “Well, she phoned me up and said, ‘Mum can you come home, I’m shaking really badly.’

“So I got back, and she had been lying in the sun, so I thought maybe she had got a bit of a heat stroke, and she got into my bed and just didn’t seem real.

“Then she started to get a bit of a high temperature, and I thought ‘ Well, that’s not heat stroke’, so I gave her paracetamol and ibuprofen, and I couldn’t get the temperature down.

“She had an aching neck and joint pain, so I thought she had the flu because a couple of days before, she said her joints were aching, but she has just grown again, so I told her it was growing pains.

“Of course, it wasn’t so I called 111, and they said we’ll send an ambulance and this was about 6:45 and then 11 o’clock still no ambulance and I’m starting to panic a bit, her temperature is still really high, she doesn’t look right and her eyes were glassy.

“I gave her some more medicine to keep her temperature down, but at three o’clock in the morning, she said to me, ‘Mum, I’m really not right’ so, fortunately, she stayed in my bed because if she went in her own bed, I don’t think I would have a daughter,” she revealed as she choked back tears.

Jay took a big sigh in a bid to keep herself from crying, to which Kaye reassured her: “Take all the time you need.

“This is so fresh for you, it is less than four weeks ago, we know Josie is still in the hospital, though thankfully seeming to be coming around.”

Crying, Jay continued: “At three o’clock in the morning, I turned all the lights on and said, ‘Let’s have a look at you’ because bizarrely, my husband had meningitis 19 years ago, and she was my silver lining after losing my husband.

“I saw the rash in her arms, and there were four little brown spots, and I knew then what it was, and I thought ‘No, not again.’

“It was very similar to what my husband had, different rash but presented very similar, by the time we got into A&E, within 20 minutes, she saw a doctor, and she was on a drip, and they were treating her with bacterial meningitis.

“Within one hour, she was covered in the rash, she was petrified, and a day and a half later, her organs started failing, and they had already given us the 50/50, and they said we need to put her in a coma.

“So they put her in a coma for five days,” Jay couldn’t get her sentence out without crying, with the Loose Women panellists comforting her.

Jay explained Josie was still in a coma after three days and said Josie promised her she would be awake by Mother’s Day, but unfortunately, this didn’t happen.

“She woke up two days later, and I said to her, ‘Could you hear us talking to you?’ and she said, ‘No, I don’t remember anything.'”

The ladies went on to speak about the awareness and symptoms people need to look out for when their loved ones could potentially be dealing with meningitis.

Loose Women airs weekdays from 12:30pm on ITV.

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