A woman whose daughter died from meningitis has urged parents to make themselves aware of the symptoms of the disease. 

At the time, Siobhán Carroll was pregnant with her third child; her daughter, Aoibhe, was four and her son, Evan, was two. 

Their father, Noel, put the two siblings to bed in their shared room when Aoibhe began to feel ill. 

Noel rang the out of hours service and said that Aoibhe was sick, in a way that seemed alarming to him. 

When she began to turn grey, an ambulance was called and she was rushed to hospital, where Ms Carroll was spending the night. 

“I ran down to the front door of the hospital in Galway,” Ms Carroll recalled on The Claire Byrne Show. 

“I remember it's the middle of the night, it was pitch dark and I could hear an ambulance in the distance. 

“I remember thinking, ‘God, someone's really sick, that ambulance is in a hurry to get here.’

“And little did I know when the ambulance pulled up, Noel jumped out and he said, ‘Siobhán, it's Aoibhe, it's not good.’”

Meningitis can be very serious if not treated quickly.

The NHS website has all the information you need, including what to look out for and when to get medical help.

➡️ https://t.co/FlXxJRTbqp https://t.co/xSCVAnGB2S

— NHS (@NHSuk) March 16, 2026

Aoibhe died that night, just a few short hours after she began to feel ill. 

“Within six hours of having the first symptoms, she had passed away from meningitis,” Ms Carroll said. 

“Very little stays with me from that night, but they opened the doors of the room that she was in and everybody just stood back. 

“The room was full of people and there was complete silence and she was just lying there. 

“We walked up and our lives changed from that night forever.”

Aoibhe.

Aoibhe was born on 1st January 2004 and were she alive today, she would be a 22-years-old woman. 

“Sometimes it's like a nightmare,” Ms Carroll said. 

“And I still sometimes all these years later, I sit with myself and think, did that actually really happen? 

“Was it that horrific that happened, that we lost her?”

Soon after Aoibhe’s death, the Carroll family decided to set up the charity to help raise awareness about the condition and help keep Aoibhe’s memory alive. 

Today, Ms Carroll is ACT for Meningitis’ CEO and believes passionately that the organisation’s work is saving lives. 

“Anyone of any age can get meningitis,” she warned. 

“The high risk age groups are babies and children up to age five, then 16 to 24 year olds and then over 65. 

“The symptoms can appear in any order and there may not be a rash - a rash may never appear. 

“So, my message today to people is to please make themselves aware of the signs and symptoms and trust their instincts, because over a matter of hours, someone meningitis will get sicker and they do need urgent medical attention.”

The HSE lists symptoms of the condition as including:

• a high temperature of 38 degrees Celsius or above
• a rash or spots - this may be harder to see on brown or black skin
• feeling and being sick
• headache
• a stiff neck
• aches or pains - for example, stomach, joint or muscle pain
• breathing fast
• that they are bothered by bright light
• cold hands and feet or pale, mottled skin - this may be harder to see on brown or black skin
• fits (seizures)

Other symptoms include:

• confusion
• drowsiness
• hard to wake them up
• irritability and a lack of energy

Among babies, parents should be concerned if their child:

• refuses feeds
• does not take their usual feed
• is agitated
• does not want to be picked up
• has a bulging soft spot on their head (fontanelle)
• has an unusual high-pitched cry
• has a stiff body
• is floppy or unresponsive

Main image: Siobhán Carroll and her daughter, Aoibhe.