Sharon and Maisie take on Westminster

Sharon Catt’s little girl Maisie lost both her legs after contracting Meningitis B.
Sharon Catt, pictured with daughter Maisie, wants to put pressure on the government to make a vaccine available.Sharon Catt, pictured with daughter Maisie, wants to put pressure on the government to make a vaccine available.
Sharon Catt, pictured with daughter Maisie, wants to put pressure on the government to make a vaccine available.

A vaccine exists that could protect other children against the potentially fatal disease – but its unexpectedly high price means the Government hasn’t made it available on the NHS.

Now Mirfield mum Sharon and campaigners like her all over the country are taking their fight to the heart of Westminster.

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She has written to Dewsbury and Mirfield MP Simon Reevell to ask for his support in the campaign.

“Anyone who agrees with me that this life-saving vaccine is taking too long to implement can make their feelings known,” she said.

Sharon is supporting the Meningitis Research Foundation’s #wheresourvaccine campaign after seeing firsthand the devastating impact the disease can have.

She said: “I am supporting the campaign because Maisie had amputation surgery when she was six months old – we were in hospital for six weeks in total.

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“Maisie now wears prosthetic legs and she’s a fantastic little girl.”

The campaign is calling on the government to make the vaccine against the disease available on the NHS.

MP Simon Reevell this week told the Reporter Series that he would raise the issue personally with health secretary Jeremy Hunt.

He said the company which made the vaccine had originally quoted the NHS a price of £75 per vaccination – more than three times what the health service had hoped it would cost.

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But he added: “Negotiations are taking place between the company and the NHS on bringing the price down.

“In my view the figures on both sides are sufficiently close enough to soon being resolved.”

Click here to sign an online petition in support of the campaign.