New! Magazine – 29 July 2019

S

eema Jaswal spends her life at some

of the world’s top sporting events

• she covered the recent Cricket
  World Cup as well as last year’s FIFA
  World Cup. But as a teenager she was the
  one who faced being stretchered off,
  after being struck down by a virulent
  form of meningitis.
  “It was only my fitness from
  playing sports and my mum’s quick
  reactions that saved me from
  suffering lasting brain injury or
  losing a limb because of the
  disease or, and I dread to think
  about it, losing my life,”
  says Seema, 34.
  “It’s realising how
  lucky I am to have
  survived unscathed


• and having the
  life and career that
  I have – that makes
  me want to raise
  awareness for

activities, but there was one incident she

couldn’t ignore. It happened on Saturday

16 April, 2001, a day she remembers like

it was yesterday – and it’s etched on her

parents’ minds, too.

Seema was working at the coffee shop,

chatting to customers and looking forward

‘PARAMEDICS

THOUGHT I’D

TAKEN DRUGS,

BUT I HAD

MENINGITIS’

ng stretchered off,

own by a virulent

fitness from

my mum’s quick

d me from

ain injury or

se of the

ead to think

ife,”

w

d

She covered the

Cricket World Cup

Seema was a

teenager when

she fell ill

other young people and their parents.

Eighteen years on, it’s with me every day

and just talking about it makes my mum

and dad very emotional, reducing them to

tears. It’s strange to think life might have

been very different or, even, that it might

not have carried on at all.”

Seema, from west London,

was 16 and in her first year of

A levels, studying PE, sociology,

biology and English, when she

contracted meningitis.

“Life was busy. Sport was

a big part of it, so when I

wasn’t studying I’d be on the

tennis court, playing netball

or at my dance class,” she

says. “I also had a part-time

job in a coffee shop because

I wanted to save up to do a

gap year in Mexico.”

Seema tried to shrug off

anything that threatened to get

in the way of her plans and

Sports presenter Seema Jaswal tells

how her quick-thinking mum saved her life