The Mening-Itinerary: Taking Ask2BSure Even Further
The Mening-Itinerary
Last year, I had the opportunity to be part of GSK's Ask2BSure campaign and help raise awareness about meningitis through Pretty Hurts.
This year, the campaign got even bigger.
And funnier.
GSK teamed up with Julie Bowen and Ty Burrell for The Mening-Itinerary, a new Ask2BSure video that takes parents through some of the places teens and young adults spend their time, including dorms, parties, and gyms, while exploring meningitis risks and the questions parents may not realize they should be asking.
Apparently, raising awareness about meningitis can include a pretty good itinerary.
What makes this campaign especially meaningful to me is that behind the humor is a very serious message. As a meningitis survivor, I know firsthand how quickly this disease can change a life. That's why I'm grateful to once again lend my story to Ask2BSure alongside fellow meningitis advocates Jamie Schanbaum and Patsy Schanbaum.
The goal is simple: get parents talking with their teens' doctors about meningitis risks and vaccination.
Julie Bowen and Ty Burrell help make that conversation a lot more entertaining.
Watch Ty Burrell & Julie Bowen's Mening-Itinerary: How to Help Protect Teens from Meningitis below.
Host, Author & Storyteller
John B. Grimes is an author, podcast host, storyteller, and meningitis survivor whose work explores what happens after life refuses to follow the plan.
At nineteen, John survived bacterial meningitis after spending eight days in a coma. He woke to profound vision loss, neurological complications, and a future that looked nothing like the one he had imagined. Rebuilding that life—often imperfectly, occasionally absurdly, and one decision at a time—became the story behind his memoir, *Destiny Is Debatable: A Memoir of Meningitis, Losing Sight, and the Love I Didn't See Coming*.
John is also the host of the *Destiny Is Debatable* podcast, where conversations about resilience, disability, purpose, family, creativity, and the unexpected turns of life challenge the idea that our circumstances get the final say.
His experience with meningitis eventually led him deeper into advocacy. John is a co-founder and Executive Director of Shots 4 Meningitis, a national nonprofit raising awareness, sharing survivor and family stories, supporting those affected by meningitis, and creating opportunities for communities to take action.
Across his writing, podcasting, advocacy, and speaking, one idea continues to shape John's work: survival is not the end of the journey—it is just the beginning.
Destiny may be debatable. What we do next isn't.
Twenty-Eight Years Later
