Parents' television appeal (From Bucks Free Press)

Parents' television appeal

10:00am Tuesday 12th June 2007 in

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PARENTS Richard and Judi Mills are appearing on national television to back a charity's research into the disease which killed their youngest son six weeks ago.

Harry Mills, 11, died in April after contracting Meningitis B and since then his family have been working with the Meningitis Research Foun-dation and raising money for the charity.

And tomorrow the pair are going on air to tell their story about Harry's sudden death and try to raise the profile of the foundation by appearing on ITV's prime time breakfast show, GMTV.

Through this, they hope more money will be pledged to the charity so that it will eventually find a vaccine to the B strain of the disease.

Harry, a John Hampden Gram-mar School pupil, was killed by the deadly strain.

He had been vaccinated for the C strain.

The foundation's 2007 campaign is focussing on the B strain and urges parents to look out for its symptoms. Through B Aware the national charity is warning there is no vaccine against this form of meningitis and so it is important for parents to be aware of its symptoms.

Richard and Judi, from Marlow, will join the show's presenters Fiona Phillips and Andrew Castle and its resident doctor, Hilary Jones, to talk about Harry and the charity.

The couple also appeared in a national newspaper on Sunday telling their story about their youngest son.

Donations through a website in Harry's name has now raised more than £13,000 for research into the virus and more than £3,000 for the Youth Sport Trust.