Vaccine Rollout - Meningitis Awareness Week starts 14th September 2015

The Mills family are pleased to be part of Meningitis Awareness Week because vaccines commenced rollout on 1st September. All who have toiled to raise funds in memory of Harry for Meningitis Research can be very proud for all that has been achieved. Inspired by Harry it is a great legacy for him. Our children and their children will be safer with many lives saved and the horror of damaged lives prevented. Families will be spared the devastation of losing loved ones. Thanks to you all for your support.

Please check with your GP practice if you are, or you have sons or daughters under 25 heading off to university as you are eligible for the vaccine free of charge.

You can learn more about the causes of Meningitis at:
https://www.meningitis.org/meningitis/causes

Marlow Win the Mini Tournament Cup 2015

The Harry Mills Memorial Cup was presented to Marlow the winning under 12s team at the annual Mini Rugby Tournament.  The event held at Marlow HQ at Riverwoods, 21st - 22nd March is the largest mini rugby event in the South East.  Marlow Under 12's gave a cracking performance scoring 22 tries and conceding only 2 throughout the tournament.

The cup was presented by old mates of Harry's George Harjette and Henry Taylor both of whom played rugby with Harry at Marlow. They are now successful players with George playing for Durham University and Henry Saracens.  It is so wonderful for Harry to be remembered with this cup and it must have been a emotional moment for George and Henry.

Henry commented: "It was an absolute honour to do! I had a great day in the sun, watched the final and caught up with all the young lads afterwards. Great to see how strong the connection is between the club and memory of Harry! I was so impressed with how well the whole day was organised and will definitely be doing my best to get there next year. If I can help with anything else let me know? I have tweeted about the charity and #wheresourvaccine"

George added: It was mine and Henry's pleasure to present the award and it was the icing on the cake that Marlow won, which made both Henry and I very happy indeed!

Erica Ferguson Manager of the under 12's minis commented "We had a lovely day and hope we did you and Harry proud".  Erica arranged for the boys to be photographed with a #wheres our vaccine poster to support the campaign to introduce a vaccine for Meningitis B - the strain that took Harry.

George Harjette and Henry Taylor with Ben Ferguson 

Harry's Socks

Winners

#WheresOurVaccine?

Richard and Judi have written to their MP Dominic Grieve to ask for help in ensuring the long overdue introduction of the meningococcal Group B (MenB) vaccine.

MenB has for decades been the single largest cause of meningitis in the UK. Young children and adolescents are most at risk. It leads to death in 10% of all cases and to long-term after effects in a further 36%. Department of Health (DH) surveys have consistently shown that it is the most feared of all illnesses by the parents of young children in our country and each year it costs the NHS millions of pounds in medical litigation.

A vaccine against MenB which was recommended by the Joint Committee for Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) on 21 March 2014 to be routinely given to children in the UK, but almost a year on there are no signs that the vaccine will become part of childhood immunisation programme anytime soon. Meanwhile cases of MenB continue to occur and babies, children and adults are dying and being badly disabled as a result.

Charity Meningitis Research Foundation has launched the #WheresOurVaccine campaign to bring pressure to bear to introduce the life-saving vaccine as soon as possible.

Richard and Judi say: “We are supporting the #WheresOurVaccine campaign because our son Harry died of Group B Meningococal meningitis and septicaemia in 2007 when he was 11 years old. Judi can still remember taking him to our GP’s surgery for his meningitis jab when he was just a toddler and left feeling sure Harry was safe but unaware there were different strains. Almost a decade later another nurse tried to comfort us as Harry lay on a hospital bed in intensive care dying of Meningitis B. Harry’s life was extinguished in a single day by this terrible disease, because it is so difficult to detect we believe a vaccine is the only way to fight and eradicate this strain of Meningitis.”

The good people of Marlow and many others – some around the world – have raised in excess of £130,000 in memory of Harry and it would be a wonderful achievement for them and of course Harry for this vaccine to be introduced.

Harry Mills Team Maker Award - Youth Sports Trust 2014

Winner Rob Bellany

Richard and Judi were unfortunately unable to present Harry's Team  Maker award personally. We would like to congratulate Rob on this achievement and wish him all the very best for the future in the sport of volleyball - we will look out for him.

Ali Oliver Chief Executive, Youth Sport Trust kindly sent us these words….

This year we evolved and expanded the camp to include nearly 350 young people who were a mix of young talented athletes, coaches and officials. We were keen to enable young people to explore the relationships between these 3 roles in sport from a young age and wrestle with some of the moral and ethical decisions they each face in performing their role in sport. As you can imagine it was a fascinating 4 days in Loughborough with the usual Youth Sport Trust mischief thrown in!

The award was again presented to a young person who, through their actions, creates an environment that allows each person within their team to flourish and grow: this person is a team maker.

The 2014 Winner was Rob Bellamy a special young man from the sport of Volleyball. Below is the citation for Rob’s nomination:

Rob really grew and developed over the four days, and proved himself as a young person who had his team at the heart of everything he did. Rob went out of his way to bring the Volleyball coaches, officials and athletes together, and demonstrated a real empathy for the different individuals, and the role s they played in the team, across the camp and his sport. Rob was nominated by his peers for the award because of his commitment and dedication for his sport, and the role he played in bringing people together.

The photograph shows Rob receiving his award from the Vice Chancellor of Loughborough University Robert Allison, and the Secretary of State for Education and MP for Loughborough, Nicky Morgan.

Many thanks to the Youth Sports Trust for remembering Harry with this wonderful award.

Visit to the Meningitis Research Foundation exhibition at the Palace of Westminster

Judi and Richard were invited to the Meningitis Research Foundation viewing of our Focus on Meningitis exhibition at the Palace of Westminster.

We were able to get an update on the new Meningitis vaccine and heard from:

• Frank Dobson MP, MRF Patron and Parliamentary Sponsor
• Diana Man, Member - personal experience of meningitis
• Dr Mary Ramsay, Public Health England - update on meningococcal disease