My night started out like any other weekend – a few pints at the pub with my twin sister, Lauren, and some friends, and then out to a nightclub. I got my usual drink, a vodka and orange, before asking my sister to keep an eye on it while I went to the toilet.

After returning, I took a sip of my drink and agreed to watch the drinks so Lauren and her girlfriend could go to the toilet too. But within ten minutes, I knew something was very wrong.

My vision goes strange, everything seems really bright and in slow motion. It was all blurry and out of focus. I feel like my limbs are tingling. This isn’t drunk. This is something different.

When Lauren and her girlfriend got back from the bathroom, I told them I thought I had been spiked. I explained my symptoms and told them to get me out of there as soon as possible, which is exactly what Lauren did. She sat me down on a step outside the club and got me some water to sip on.

Eve (left) with her sister Lauren (right)

Lauren took charge and called round her friends to secure a lift home. When we got back, she called 111 but was told it would be 3 hours for an ambulance. Lauren knew that would be too late – I couldn’t move, I couldn’t even recognise my own friends. I needed help right then. So Lauren called a taxi instead and waited in the hospital with me until I was finally seen at 5am. When I was told a blood test would be another five hour wait, we decided it was best to just head home.

I felt like I had been hit by a bus. Every muscle in my body ached. It was so incredibly painful. I had brain fog. The headache lasted for weeks. Like a never-ending hangover. I was still being sick 3 days later.

It took Lauren and me months before we felt able to go out again. Even now, we avoid certain clubs in town because of stories we’ve heard from friends and other university students.

What happened that night still haunts us. If Lauren hadn’t been there to advocate for me when I wasn’t able to myself, things could have turned out very differently.

I don’t know what happened that night. I question myself if I was just drunk, but I know deep down I wasn’t and everyone around me knows I wasn’t. But it makes me question myself and I hate that. I invalidate my own experience. I have had no closure. I could have died that night because I wasn’t watching carefully enough. It’s incredibly scary to think what could have happened.