'It felt like the end of the world' after devastating phone call
"Whatever version of Brandon we get back, he will always be my son and he'll be loved and cared for forever"
It was a clear, sunny night when 30-year-old football fan Brandon Winstone was pictured grinning alongside former Everton Ladies player Jill Scott following the Lionesses' UEFA Women’s Nations League win in Bristol. Just two days later, he was deep in a life-threatening coma - struck down by deadly meningitis.
Brandon had travelled from Fairfield to Bristol on Friday, April 4, when he and his girlfriend Jodie watched the women's team bring it home for England, beating Belgium 5-0 at Ashton Gate.
The couple snapped a commemorative selfie with Jill Scott outside the stadium after the match. But as they left the stadium, Brandon began to feel unwell and complained of feeling cold and shivery.
Brandon's dad Stephen, 53, said: "The last photo he sent me was of him and his girlfriend with Jill Scott at the stadium. On Saturday it was the Grand National. Brandon phones me all the time, but that day he didn't. He was watching the Grand National - that was what I thought.
"But what I found out was that, when he left the football, he was feeling shivery. Then the next day he woke up not feeling well, which was nothing untoward."
Stephen said his son had colitis - a chronic condition causing the colon and large intestine to become inflamed - and that his regular medication meant he suffered from a weakened immune system. He said: "That's the nature of the illness. He put up with it for two years and stayed working the whole time."
Stephen, from Fairfield, said his son has asked his girlfriend to take him to his grandparent's house in Bristol, where he hoped to sleep off his sudden illness.
But when his grandparents returned home at 2.30pm the next day, Sunday, April 6, they found Brandon unresponsive on the bedroom floor.
Stephen said: "I was expecting him home in Liverpool on the Sunday night. But when my parents got home on the afternoon, they went upstairs and found him fitting on the floor in the bedroom, and he was out of it."
Ambulance services were called, and Brandon was taken to Southmead Hospital, where he was diagnosed with meningitis and sepsis. He slipped into a coma, and his family was warned he might not survive.
Stephen said: "For the first three weeks the doctors said there were four options. Either full recovery, partial disablement, full disablement, or death. Those were the only options we had and for three weeks that was all we knew.
"After three weeks, they said the only one they could take off the table was death. But they still don't know how he's going to turn out. He had meningitis and sepsis which are two things designed to kill you, and he had no immune system to start with.
"Now he's out of a coma, but he can't talk, he can't walk, he can't move. They don't know what extent the brain injury is going to be. Only time will tell. They know there is some damage, but they don't know what damage that is.
"I'm devastated. I just feel lost. This is my son and my best friend. It felt like the end of the world. It's the only way you can describe it. You're watching people going by, doing their normal day-to-day things, and you think don't you know what's happening? It's crazy but that is how you feel."
Brandon, a pipe fitter who was just one month away from completing his engineering apprenticeship when he collapsed, remains in a serious condition in hospital.
An online fundraiser set up to support his rehabilitation has already raised more than £14,000. His friend Danny Hawkins said: "He’s got a long road to recovery ahead of him and not only do we want to support him, we also want to make sure his family can be by his side with as little stress as possible. As things currently stand, his loved ones are on unpaid leave while being with Brandon every day in hospital."
A further fundraiser, a 24-hour snooker tournament open to all, is due to take place at Prescot Parish Church from 4pm on Sunday, May 25, to 4pm on Monday, May 26.
Stephen said: "We don't know what's ahead for Brandon. Until he comes out of intensive care and comes back to rehab in Liverpool, we don't know.
"The doctors tell us all it is is time and patience. They can't tell us how it's going to end, but at the end of the day he's my son. Whatever version of Brandon we get back, he will always be my son and he'll be loved and cared for forever."