Former England rugby union captain Matt Dawson has revealed his toddler son suffered “two weeks of hell” after being struck by meningitis.
The BBC Question of Sport star tweeted a video showing a slideshow of several photographs charting his young son Sami’s battle with the disease at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London.
The series of images show the boy lying in bed covered by red blisters and fitted to a collection of tubes, before gradually getting better and posing with his father while receiving a hug from his older brother Alex.
Mr Dawson, 43, said he had been “umming and ahhing” over posting the pictures but he and his wife ultimately agreed it was important to raise awareness about the disease.
In addition to the pictures he also shared a link to a petition on the Government’s website calling for all children under the age of 11 to be vaccinated against Meningitis B.
The petition has already gathered more than 380,000 signatures meaning it will be considered for debate in the House of Commons.
The vaccine was introduced in September 2015 for babies born on or after 1 July 2015, and involves a series of three injections at two months, four months and a year old.
According to the NHS, Meningitis B is the cause of 90 per cent of all meningococcal infections in young children.
Meningitis is an infection of the protective membranes around the brain and spinal column.
It comes as charity Meningitis Now released images of two-year-old Faye Burdett who died of the disease on Sunday.
One photograph shows a happy, smiling little girl and the other shows the toddler covered in blisters and connected to tubes at Evelina London Children’s Hospital.
She died after battling the infection and the sepsis (blood poisoning) it caused for 11 days.
In a statement, Faye’s mother said: “This is a photo of Faye, two years old, who sadly lost her life to this dreadful disease. We campaign for change in her memory. All children are at risk from this terrible infection”.
