Meningitis Awareness – a personal plea

This week is Meningitis Awareness Week. Meningitis is one of those things that hover in the background, you know about it as a parent but try not to think about it too much. We had our own scare when Taylor was younger when he was rushed to hospital with suspected meningitis but he was fine, it wasn’t meningitis after all. That horrible experience really opened my eyes.

The Meningitis Foundation are hosting this petition supporting the introduction of vaccination against meningitis and septicaemia. They are looking for 10,000 signatures to be able to present our petition to 10 Downing Street.

This is what my friend Angie Parsons has to say about it:

My little girl, now 10, was 8 months old when she contracted Meningitis, we didnt really know much about it , she became ill, but never had a rash which is something that people associate with Meningitis. But there are different types and not everyone gets a rash. My daughter was so ill we nearly lost her, she survived but with brain damage, severe learning difficutlies and other problems. I cannot stress how important it is to be aware of all the symptoms of Meningitis, and to have the vaccines available. The vaccine for Ellie’s meninigitis came out a few years after she had been ill. Please do all sign the petition so vaccinations become more widespread. 

Just over 9 years ago Angie and her families lives were tipped upside-down by meningitis, the Meningitis Foundation’s ultimate aim is to ensure that this doesn’t continue happening.

Please take just a couple of minutes to sign your name and be part of the Counting The Cost campaign that will quite literally save lives.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T42wFgK-SZw

Thank you

Children dying through a lack of Healthworkers

Yesterday a group of Bloggers and Vloggers went to London for a conference at the London headquarters of Save The Children. Save The Children is a charity close to my heart and one I support keenly. Many of you will remember being asked earlier in the year to click and sign (a two minute job) the No Child Is Born To Die petition, aimed at ensuring the right funding was given to ensure children in less fortunate countries were able to be given life-saving vaccinations. AND WE DID IT! Not closing the browser, signing and passing on, made the difference in saving millions of lives.

Now I’m asking for your help again.

A huge problem in Africa is the chronic lack of healthworkers, trained professionals who can help families and children on a daily basis, educating, caring and saving lives. Our own keen campaigner Christine Mosler (@ChristineMosler) and Liz Scarff from Save the Children will be attending the UN General Assembly in New York on Tuesday and they need help to pressure David Cameron to play his part in solving the health worker crisis.

They need 60,000 signatures to take with them, the total already received is £40k+ – they need your help!

Please take just two minutes to visit and sign and do your bit in ensuring that what is a completely avoidable loss of life doesn’t continue. If you don’t blog, you can help by signing, passing the link or this post on to your friends and contacts. If you do blog, see below for how YOU can make a difference.

The key to a campaign like this is awareness and the lovely Michelle from Mummy From The Heart has asked bloggers and vloggers to spread the news using their readership. A damn find idea. If you blog here is how you can help.

  1. Sign the petition!
  2. Why not take part in the challenge set by HelloItsGemma and Michelle ? They want (need) to see 100 posts of 100 words linked up here by Tuesday. If 100 bloggers write a post and encourage more signatures it will go a long way to obtaining those much needed remaining 20,000 signatures!
  3. Write your 100 words about a great health professional you have encountered in your life. Add a link to the petition and either link or add in some information from Save the Children about the #Healthworkers campaign.
  4. Link to bloggers and vloggers you know and encourage them to take part
  5. Spread the news on Facebook, Twitter, any way you can.
My 100 words:
I want to tell you about Noel. When pregnant with Taylor I developed Gestational Diabetes, unpleasant but also quite dangerous for some. My blood sugar levels were all over the place and several times I came close to spiralling into a hypo. Noel was the diabetic nurse who cared for me. He phoned every 3 days to check my levels and ensure the insulin dosage was correct. He calmed my fears and helped advise the maternity ward on how to manage my insulin during the CSection.  Without such help, things may have turned out very differently for Taylor and I.
The lovely bloggers I’d love to see take part are:
The funny and wise Pippa from AMothersRamblings
The clever and cool Kat from 3bedroombungalow
The extremely lovely Liz from MeandMyShadow
The adventurous and wonderful Carolin from MummyAlarm
and last but not least
The ever fun and fiesty Kate from TheFiveFsBlog!
PLEASE take 2 minutes and SIGN!