Hairdresser shares graphic meningitis photos of her battle to survive
WARNING: The following article contains images some viewers may find distressing
A hairdresser who faces amputation after contracting bacterial meningitis has shared photos of herself battling to stay alive in hospital.
Charlene Colechin, 18, a hair stylist from Chesterfield, near Derbyshire, has been in hospital for a month with the life-threatening illness - nine of which she spent in a coma.
Miss Colcechin, who nearly died from the illness, faces the prospect of having her toes and feet amputated after the disease ravaged her body.
She has now taken to Facebook to raise awareness of the dangers of meningitis.
"These are not nice photos but this is the reality of what meningitis can do," she wrote. "I had the worse type of meningitis you can get...it's bacterial what [is] happening outside of my body was happening inside of my body poisoning my blood."
She said her organs failed and she nearly died, adding that she faces amputation of her feet or toes.
Miss Colechin's symptoms started with a headache and vomiting when she returned from work one day last month.
She went to bed but by the following morning her condition had deteriorated and the spots had started to appear on her body.
She was then rushed to hospital where she has been ever since.
Symptoms of meningitis:
Fever, cold hands and feet
Vomiting
Drowsy, difficult to wake
Confusion and irritability
Severe muscle pain
Pale, blotchy skin. Spots/rash
Severe headache
Stiff neck