One of the biggest charity events in Bristol in 2022 is to take place in November, to mark the 40th anniversary of the founding of a meningitis charity set up by the grieving father who lost his baby to the virus.
For 40 years, Steve Dayman has dedicated his life to raising money for research into meningitis, which took the life of his young son Spencer back in 1982.
Since then, and after countless fundraisers, walks, events, dinners, sponsored trials and auctions, Steve has raised millions and the charity he set up has become one of the biggest meningitis research charities in the country.
Steve founded the Meningitis UK charity movement following Spencer’s death at the age of just one. That charity has evolved into Meningitis Now, with Steve as executive founder, and 40 years after the tragedy which changed his life, Steve still travels the country visiting and supporting families affected by meningitis and the devastation it causes.
A lot of the money raised over the years has gone to refurbish what has now become the Spencer Dayman Meningitis Laboratories at the University of Bristol Medical School, which has led research into the causes of the disease.
This year, to mark the 40th anniversary of the founding of the charity, a huge charity extravaganza is being held this November, to raise more money for Spencer’s Legacy. The event, in aid of Meningitis Now, will be held on Saturday, November 12, in the Heineken Lounge at Ashton Gate Stadium. Now aged 74, Steve shows no signs of slowing down, although admits that the marathon sponsored walks from John O’Groats to Lands End that saw him become something of a household name in the region back in the 1980s are behind him.
This weekend, for instance, he’s still out there - joining a family in the Peak District for the eighth year running, as they embark on their own sponsored trek in memory of their daughter Ruby, who was lost to meningitis. But there was an element of pride in Steve’s voice as he details the achievements of the families he supports with their fundraising efforts.
When Spencer died, medical knowledge about meningitis, both bacterial and pneumococcal, was fairly scant.
“Back then they said there was no chance of anything like a vaccine to prevent it,” Steve told Bristol Live, as he prepared for his Peak District walk. “But I remember when I was a kid in the 50s, queuing up to get my polio jab. There was a child at school affected by polio and polio used to terrify me. But vaccines meant polio was eradicated. After Spencer died, I thought there must be a way to get a vaccine for meningitis, and nothing is impossible. We now have five different vaccines.
“Babies will get meningitis jabs before their first birthday, and there’s another meningitis jab that children get when they are 14. We do a lot of work with universities during freshers’ week, encouraging students to get the jabs that the babies are getting now, because that’s a vulnerable time for them, when they get to university.
“It has been a success. I think we’re down to less than a thousand bacterial meningitis cases in this country a year, whereas a few years ago it would have been in the tens of thousands,” he said.
Steve and his wife Gloria ran a haulage business and a truck stop on the A38 between Alveston and Thornbury back in the early 1980s when Spencer was born back in late September 1981. Just a few weeks after his first birthday, Spencer was taken ill, taken to hospital and died within 24 hours.
The tragedy changed everyone’s lives. Gloria and their two daughters continued running the truck stop, the haulage business was slimmed down as Steve took off around the country on a mission to raise money for the research into, and awareness about meningitis.
It was a three-fold mission - to get the money for research into treatment and vaccines, to spread the word about what symptoms of meningitis are - so early diagnosis would save lives - and also to support the families of other children who also succumbed so tragically.
Speaking in 2012 as the couple and the charity marked the 30th anniversary of Spencer’s death, Steve, now 74, spoke of Spencer’s death and how it changed his life.
“Losing a child is the worst thing a parent can witness,” he told the Bristol Post. “It’s something we’ll never get over - there are still days now that we’re so overwhelmed by feelings of shock and emptiness - one minute he was here, the next he was gone. There are still times I blame myself and ask whether I could have done things differently.
“I held Spencer – the devastation and emptiness is something we can never forget. Only parents who’ve been through a similar experience can imagine the pain this horrifying disease causes,” he added.
“Spencer's death completely changed my life. I wouldn’t have become involved in any of it had Spencer not died. If he’d survived unscathed, I would probably have resumed life as normal and continued my haulage business. So much has been achieved over the time – but there is still more to do. I won’t stop until we have vaccines to protect people against all forms of the disease,” he said.
Ten years on from that in 2012, and 40 years on from Spencer’s death, millions of pounds has been raised, vaccines developed and lives saved. Steve received an MBE for his charity work in 2010.
“Some days it feels like yesterday, but other days you look back and think it’s amazing, it's 40 years,” he said this week. “It’s all down to the little army of families all across the country who have been touched by this and decided to do their bit. They have succeeded, but there’s still lots to do,” he said.
“There was little known about meningitis back then, but we know so much now. We have made a difference,” he added, speaking with pride about how the Spencer Dayman Research Centre recently undertook new clinical trials for another meningitis jab.
The big charity extravaganza takes place on November 12, starts at 7.30pm will go beyond midnight and is hosted by TV sports presenter Nigel Turner, with comedian Micky John Bull and live music from Shazam. There will also be special guest appearances, an auction, raffle and bingo.
The launch of the event, which is sponsored by B&A Group, took place at the Bristol Hotel earlier this month, and saw both Bristol’s football clubs come together to back the fundraiser - Richard Gould, the chief executive at Bristol City joined Rovers’ CEO Tom Gorringe and the club’s Head of Sales Dave Bright. Tottenham Hotspur Legend Steve Perryman was also there to lend his support, along with former Mayor of Bristol, George Ferguson.
