For Ludovic Peze, November this year will serve as a solemn reminder of a time when the French-Mauritian’s life hung in the balance as it marks a decade since he contracted meningitis.
Since that uncertain time, the now 31-year-old has developed his passion for motorsport, cultivated during his time growing up in Monaco where the annual grand prix would pique his interest, into a full-time career centred around his own team and driver management agency.
Working with some of the sport’s rising stars as part of an ever-growing portfolio, his work has also been noted by Lewis Hamilton through the seven-time Formula 1 world champion’s Hamilton Commission. But as well as raising awareness and highlighting diversity in motorsport, Peze hopes to do the same for the disease which nearly killed him with World Meningitis Day taking place on Thursday (5 October).
“In my case, the symptoms were I didn’t feel very good, a low fever and my throat was really scratchy,” says Peze.
“At the beginning, my doctor thought it was laryngitis, so I got a prescription to treat this but then a few days after I didn’t get better, and then I started to get a stiff neck. My neck was really stiff, like when you’re tired but really amplified and the main thing was the light sensitivity – I was literally like a vampire when someone was switching on the light!
“I went to sleep normally and what happened after that I woke up a few days later in hospital. I found out after my mum went to see me in the morning and I didn’t respond at all, not any noise – nothing. She understood something was wrong, she called my doctor and he recognised straightaway the symptom of meningitis, so he called the emergency room.”
These quick actions saved Peze’s life but only after he spent several days in a coma and despite it being “written in black and white” that “he could die”. The road to recovery took more than a year after he lost 20 kilos which left him physically weak, while his memory was also severely impacted.
Source: Autosport