Wattle Grove resident Colin Greenway, the founder of the Violet Foundation, a charity that works to assist people who have suffered meningococcal meningitis, was made an Officer of the Order of Liverpool, receiving a silver award at the recent ceremony.

"My goal has always been to raise awareness about the disease and how it can affect anyone," Mr Greenway said.

"And particularly how people can avoid contracting it.

"Raising money for research for a cure hasn't been our particular goal because the pharmaceutical companies are already working it; a treatment would be worth a lot of money for them.

"But I've always wanted to inform people about how to avoid it.

"Don't share drinks with anyone except for your life partner and just be really careful.

"A lot of the children that have suffered from the disease were most likely infected by their parents."

Mr Greenway learned about meningococcal when he met Jan Buxtom, a Moorebank resident, when visiting his sister in the Liverpool Hospital.

Ms Buxtom contracted the disease in 2000 and lost both her legs and some of her fingers as a result.

"My wife and I decided that we needed to help and spoke to former Liverpool mayor George Paciullo about organising a fund-raiser to help her out.

"He was touched by the story and made that year's Mayoral Ball a fund-raising event for the family.

"We raised more than $100,000 in cash and kind, which helped the family to remodel their home to make it wheelchair accessible."