A teenager who assumed she had ‘freshers flu’ but almost died after contracting meningitis is warning other students to be cautious. Ketia Moponda has stressed that dismissing illness as just a cold can be dangerous, after surgeons had to amputate both her legs in order to save her life. The 19-year-old had only been at university for eight days when what she believed was a mild cough became something far worse.

‍

‍

She assumed it was a typical illness many new students get, with similar symptoms reported during the first weeks. But when relatives and friends couldn’t get hold of her the next day, worried security staff and a fellow student at De Montfort University in Leicester found her unconscious in her room. Ketia was then diagnosed with meningococcal septicaemia, which developed into bacterial meningitis and sepsis, leading to the loss of all ten fingers and both legs this January. Meningococcal septicaemia, a form of blood poisoning that can be deadly, is spread between people through coughing and sneezing.

‍

‍

The teenager, from Wolverhampton in the West Midlands, is now urging new students to take symptoms seriously. "Don't mistake everything for a common cold," she warned. "I have no memory of any of this, but I'm lucky to be alive. When I got to hospital my blood oxygen level was at 1%. The blood wasn't circulating around my body and my skin was colourless. My feet were green and swollen. My organs were failing and doctors told my family that if I woke at all I'd likely be brain dead." Her ordeal began on September 25, 2024, with a cough. After feeling exhausted while eating pizza, she took some medicine but worsened the following day.

‍

By midday she told her cousin she felt faint and they agreed to talk again in the morning. But by 8pm she phoned her best friend, admitting she thought she was "going to die". Surgeons carried out a skin graft using tissue from her thighs. In December, she was transferred to Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, where on 7 January both her legs were amputated below the knees along with all her fingers and thumbs.

‍

‍

"Basically my legs had died because of a lack of blood going to them," she explained. "It was terrible. I just kept crying all the time. I felt so hurt, it was killing my spirit. I woke from the operation and just cried. I felt like my whole life had just begun and now I had to start all over again differently."

‍

A fitness lover who aspired to become a model, Ketia left the hospital on February 24. By May, she had been fitted with prosthetic legs and began rehabilitation in Wolverhampton. She is still waiting to find out if she will be given prosthetic fingers. Although it usually takes a year to walk with prosthetics, Ketia has already been walking in the park without support.

‍

‍

She hopes to return to the gym in future and still intends to pursue her modelling ambitions. She said: "They don't know how I got the illness - it's heartbreaking. I loved being active and I will be again. At first I thought I'd give up on modelling, but I won't. You don't have to hide who you are.

‍

"This doesn't make me less of a person. I am unapologetically me and I want to help others to feel confident about who they are and how they look. I'm very headstrong and I plan to break all the barriers of disability."

‍