On Friday, March 2, fundraising coffee mornings are taking place across the country to highlight the dangers of meningitis. Zahra Akkerhuys spoke to a group of students who lost a friend to the deadly disease.

When Paul Nolan first started at Oxford Brookes University he was full of excitement about meeting new friends and entering a new phase in his life.

He moved into a shared flat in Marston Road with 11 other boys and the group of lads became inseparable.

Adam PriorMany of them were taking the same engineer foundation course and so they studied by day together and then relaxed in the evening hanging out in the student bars or in their favourite pubs and clubs.

But just five months into the course, on February 13, 1999, a tragedy tore apart the boys' worlds.

One of the gang, Adam Prior, contracted meningitis and died within hours of being diagnosed. Adam, who died at the age of 20, was one of Paul's closest friends.

In the week before his death, he and all his flatmates had felt a bit under the weather. They thought they were suffering from a stomach bug that might be going around the university.

Paul, now in the second year of his degree course, remembers the group carried on living life as normal, going out drinking with friends, watching football matches and taking part in a range of sporting activities.

On the day before Adam's death he played in a cricket match but then went home to bed because he felt so ill. Paul says when Adam woke the next day the boys knew immediately that something was wrong. He was covered in a severe rash and was clearly suffering badly. He was rushed to the John Radcliffe Hospital where doctors diagnosed his condition immediately. But it was too late - within just four hours Adam had died of a fatal strain of the disease, meningococcal septicaemia.

Paul says the gang was stunned at Adam's death, particularly because it had all happened so quickly.

"I just couldn't take the news in when I first heard. It just seemed too awful to be true. I couldn't believe it. Adam was always smiling. We were always winding each other up and having a laugh. No-one had a bad word to say about him. Everyone was devastated."

Paul says the group of friends found it hard to carry on with normal life without Adam.

"Every time we turned the radio on it was playing one of his favourite songs, and whenever we switched on the TV we came across one of his favourite shows, like The Simpsons. On occasions when we were all together it seemed as if something was missing. We couldn't help but think about how Adam should have been with us."

Adam's body was returned to his family in Bedford for cremation. Representatives from the university and many of Adam's friends attended the emotionally-charged funeral.

As a tribute to Adam, Paul and his friends decided they wanted to show their support for the National Meningitis Trust, based in Stroud, which leads the fight against the disease.

They held several fundraising events in his memory and set up a group at the university to raise awareness about the disease and inform other students about its tell-tale signs

This Friday, Paul and his friends are holding a fundraising event as part of the charity's national campaign. People across the country are organising coffee mornings to highlight awareness about the disease and raise cash to help the charity.

Paul and his friends are holding a coffee morning-style event at the home of the secretary of the group, Simon Farley, in Marston Road.

Paul says: "We like to bend the rules a bit and so we'll probably be serving beer instead of coffee. Any event is good because it highlights awareness about the disease. People say they think it will never happen to them but when we explain about what happened to Adam it makes them think twice.

"We still think about Adam a lot and really miss him, especially when it comes up to the anniversary of his death. We always go out for a meal on that day to remember him."