On Friday 21 March, we were delighted to hear that the meningitis B vaccine, Bexsero, will be added to the routine childhood vaccination schedule.
For over two years through our industry-leading A Just:: Cause pro bono programme, I and my colleagues at Just:: have been advising the UK’s leading meningitis charity, Meningitis Now, on PR and public affairs, most recently supporting their Beat It Now! campaign to bring in the vaccine. We’ve worked with the charity’s inspirational CEO, Sue Davie, and her team to help develop their lobbying strategy, support them at events and build their profile in Westminster. Only a few days ago, I took my family to the Houses of Parliament to participate in Meningitis Now’s Westminster Action Day.
The campaign hasn’t all been plain sailing. In 2013, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) made an interim ruling that the vaccine was not cost-effective “at any price” and therefore would not be made available on the NHS. We worked with Meningitis Now to help them make the case that the JCVI’s cost effectiveness model had not taken account of the significant costs borne by families affected by the disease – after all, one in three people who contract meningitis will be left with after-effects, potentially including epilepsy, deafness, loss of limbs or issues with memory and cognition.
I’m incredibly proud to have helped Meningitis Now reverse the initial JCVI decision and secure this vital lobbying victory. It will make an enormous difference to many thousands of families who will hopefully be spared the trauma of a meningitis B diagnosis. As a new parent, I know only too well the fear meningitis can cause and I look forward to the day it loses that terrible power for good.
You can donate to support Meningitis Now’s fantastic work at http://www.meningitisnow.org/donate/.
Jon
