Gill Darbyshire's daughter Emily spent two months in intensive care, fighting meningitis encephalitis and septicaemia after becoming ill in September 2006.

Now the family want to raise awareness of the disease and Gill's firm has recently helped raise hundreds of pounds for national charity Meningitis UK.

Emily, who is now 19, spent a total of 62 days in intensive care and seven months in hospital.

She is now being treated at Queen Elizabeth Foundation Brain Injury Centre in Banstead and has recently taken her geography A-level.

Emily said: "With the dedication of my family and friends I have had to learn to talk, write and hopefully walk again. I hope to go to university in the near future and to ride horses again.

"I also thank my mum's company for the effort which was made to raise funds and awareness of this illness and just how quickly it can take hold."

The aim of the campaign is to help raise £7m to fund vital research into developing a vaccine against Meningitis B – the most common form of meningitis in the UK. This accounts for almost 90 per cent of all cases and there is still no vaccine.

To find out more about the campaign, call 0117 373 7373 or visit www.meningitisuk.org

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