A MOTHER who almost lost her daughter to meningitis B has joined thousands calling for the vaccine to be extended to all youngsters on the NHS.

Jenny Daniels, 34, of Horspath, whose eight-year-old daughter Charlotte Nott had parts of her arms and legs amputated after contracting the disease, has demanded that all children – not just infants, who have received the vaccine for free since last September – be offered the jab.

The petition calling for the meningitis B vaccine to be given to all children, not just babies, after the death of two-year-old Faye Burdett from Kent, became the most endorsed on the UK Government website yesterday with more than 580,000 signatures.

At the same time it has emerged that a national shortage of the drug, Bexsero, is making it more difficult for families with older children to get the jab privately.

Miss Daniels signed the petition and ‘shared’ the pictures online. She said: “I don’t have high hopes that the Government will roll it out to older children, but the fact that so many people have signed is a start.

“Meningitis is the most vile thing I have ever come across. If people don’t like looking at it that’s fair enough but that is the reality.”

Today she said Charlotte is “bright as a button and happy as Larry”. She uses prosthetic limbs, which are regularly replaced at a cost of £6,000, and may receive new ‘bionic’ hands made from a 3D printer later this year. She was almost three when she contracted the disease, meaning she would not have been eligible for the vaccine on the NHS.

Miss Daniels added: “What parents with children of that age go through now is worse knowing the vaccine is there. I can’t imagine what it’s like for them.”

The vaccine is available on the NHS for babies aged two months, followed by a second dose at four months and then a booster at 12 months. Any vaccine afterwards must be paid for privately but a global scarcity of the vaccine Bexsero means supplies are very low.

Dr Robert Armstrong, of The Manor Hospital in Headington, says they won’t get any more until at least June.

He added: “I presume it’s a manufacturing hold-up.”

Dr Mary Ramsay, Head of Immunisations at Public Health England, said: “We are aware that GSK has supply constraints on the Bexsero vaccine for the private market. However, this does not impact the NHS programme and the MenB vaccination programme will continue to be delivered to eligible infants.”