Katie: Not everyone is hygiene aware

KATIE DRENNAN is always on the lookout for dirt. At this stage, the 20-year-old is not even conscious of doing it; she just scans a room automatically.

Despite being a university student, there’s a lot of bars that she won’t dare enter. Once again it’s the dirt.

When she’s in a hospital — and she’s there a lot more than the average student — she’s always checking staff hygiene standards and often gives her ward a once-over with bacteria spray. Even her housemates have been subjected to a few lectures on cleanliness, she admits with a laugh. However, her behaviour doesn’t make her the butt of any jokes because Katie’s friends know in her case dirt means infection and infection means serious illness as she has cystic fibrosis (CF).