100-Mile Tribute to Aaron Mills: Raising Awareness for Meningitis B
Anthony Mills stood outside Anfield with tired eyes and a lighter heart.
Nine months after meningitis B tore his 18-year-old son Aaron from him, the father from Kidderminster says he finally feels “at peace” – not because the pain has faded, but because his son’s name now travels further than he ever could.
That journey has been literal as well as emotional.
A 100-Mile Tribute
Family friend Shaun McEntee has just run more than 100 miles, from Kidderminster Harriers’ Aggborough Stadium to Liverpool’s Anfield, over five gruelling days. Not for a medal. Not for a personal best. For Aaron.
For awareness.
“I’m exhausted, so tired, but it’s been so worth it,” McEntee said, speaking outside Anfield after crossing the finish line. “I feel like we’ve actually got the message across.”
He carried a small cannister of Aaron’s ashes with him every step of the way. On the darkest stretches, that weight became his fuel.
“Thursday and Friday were really tough,” he admitted. “The weather was against us and I was already exhausted and I knew I had lots to go.” But the ashes stayed in his hand, and he kept moving.
Turning Grief Into Purpose
Along the route, McEntee and Mills stopped not just to rest, but to talk.
They visited the University of Wolverhampton, Harper Adams University in Shropshire, Reaseheath College & University Centre in Nantwich and the University of Chester, stepping into lecture theatres and common rooms to speak directly to students about MenB – a fast-acting bacterial infection that can kill within hours.
Mills, who has spent the past months pushing himself into these rooms and these conversations, found a grim pattern.
Most of the students, he said, had no idea.
No idea what meningitis B is. No idea that there’s a vaccine. No idea that their age group, unlike babies, often missed out on routine protection.
Although infants have been routinely vaccinated against MenB for more than a decade, teenagers like Aaron slipped through that gap. It is a fact that haunts his father and drives him in equal measure.
“I owe Shaun a lot, he’s done all this in Aaron’s memory and it’s been phenomenal,” Mills said. “Aaron was an incredible person and to just let him go like that... it just felt so wrong.
“I’ve really tried to get his legacy over the last nine months to what it should be because his potential was unlimited.”
A Legacy Taking Shape
The run has not brought Aaron back. It was never going to. But it has done something else for his father.
“The whole experience was just amazing,” Mills said. “I feel a bit guilty because I enjoyed every single minute of it.”
That enjoyment came laced with meaning. At each stop, he watched faces change as students heard Aaron’s story. Some of them, McEntee recalled, made decisions on the spot.
“There were a couple of moments that in my head could have saved a couple of lives,” he said. “Those people said they’d get the vaccine as a result of what we’ve done, which is obviously massively worth it.”
For Mills, those moments matter as much as any finish line.
“I’m kind of at peace,” he said. “A lot of people know Aaron’s name, they know Aaron’s story, and it’s really helped me a lot.
“I feel like I can move forward a bit... I’ve healed a lot of wounds from it and it was incredible, the whole thing.”
Work Still To Do
The message, though, is far from finished.
Mills knows awareness has risen, but he is blunt: there is “still work to be done” on vaccination and on making sure young people understand the threat of MenB before it is too late.
The run from Aggborough to Anfield has given Aaron a powerful legacy and his father a measure of peace. It has also thrown down a challenge – to universities, to families, to anyone listening:
Now that you know his name, what will you do with his story?
