A MOTHER from Yate is calling for all children to be vaccinated against meningitis to prevent more families suffering like her son.

Shirley Carmichael is supporting Meningitis Research Foundation’s Counting the Cost of Meningitis campaign which reveals the lifelong costs of surviving meningitis and calls on the Government to pursue the widest and earliest implementation of vaccines to prevent the diseases.

Shirley, of Estoril, knows only too well the emotional and financial scars of meningitis. Her second child Andrew was left with severe brain damage after contracting pneumococcal meningitis at just eight months old.

Now nine, Andrew has had radical brain surgery which stopped him suffering up to 40 epileptic fits a day.

But despite attending New Siblands School in Thornbury, Andrew will never lead a normal life.

"The most basic thing is that I cannot work," said Shirley, who gave up a career in the insurance sector to care for her son. "There is no out of school provision for a child with severe disabilities and he has so many hospital appointments.

"There is also the fact that Andrew will never be able to work.

"Then there are the everyday things. He is doubly incontinent and needs special cleansing pads and a £3,000 bed. We also have a carer at a cost to the local authority."

She said the cost of equipment for Andrew, who has right-sided weakness, visual impairment, severe learning difficulties and a permanent plastic shunt to drain fluid from his brain, is huge.

"Everything just costs so much more," said Shirley, who has three other children, Jacob, 12, and three-year-old twins Freddie and Luke. "When Andrew was a younger he needed a car seat. Normally they would cost £50 but he needed one which cost £700.

"I would love to buy him a touch screen computer but it is out of my league. Most children his age have access to a computer but Andrew cannot operate a mouse.

"There are so many basic things people just take for granted."

As part of the campaign, Shirley is meeting with Thornbury and Yate MP Steve Webb next week to discuss vaccination.

"When Andrew was a baby there was the whole MMR scare and it was not available," she said. "Thankfully my other children have been vaccinated."

MRF chief executive Christopher Head said: "Counting the Cost of Meningitis shows how those who survive can struggle to come to terms with the impact of these horrific diseases which change lives forever. "Our campaign makes practical recommendations to Government to reduce the burden of disease through vaccination in the UK."

An online petition is available at www.meningitis.org/sign