Parents of meningitis B victim urge introduction of vaccine

Julie Tuckley, 37, said that no child should have to suffer the pain and anguish her 19 month- old-son Tommy Brown did.

In March last year, Tommy was struck down with the potentially fatal infection when he was just five months old.

His parents Ms Tuckley and father Dean Brown, 28, took Tommy to his doctor because his temperature jumped to 37.3C.

He was diagnosed with a throat infection but the next morning a purple rash had spread across his body and he was rushed to hospital, where he technically died but was revived by medics.

Doctors said that the youngster, from Walsall, in the West Midlands, only had a five per cent chance of survival. But after a life-saving operation, during which he had both of his legs, his right hand and left-hand fingers amputated, the youngster has come out of the other side.

Ms Tuckley and Mr Brown said that the “life-saving” vaccine, which was approved for use by European health chiefs in January, should become routinely available on the NHS.

The couple, who have teamed up with charities Meningitis UK and Meningitis Trust, are calling on the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation to give the green light to the Bexsero vaccine. Mr Brown said: “It’s a horrendous disease that kills or leaves people like our Tommy with awful after-effects.”