A couple have joined the national petition for more awareness into meningitis B after their daughter was wrongly diagnosed by hospital staff.

Rickie and Carly Hicks, from Allerton Road, in Borehamwood, were enjoying a trip to the cinema when they noticed their six-month-old daughter Lily began acting vacant with a temperature.

Believing something was wrong the couple took their daughter to Watford General Hospital but despite Lily deteriorated, they were sent home at 2.30am being told she had a virus, possibly chickenpox.

By the morning Lily was covered in spots and within 20 minutes the spots turned into an aggressive rash covering her head to her toes and she was drifting in and out of sleep.

Mr Hicks, 30, said: “It was quite horrific. We were let down by the system. Despite having at least seven symptoms of meningitis, Lily was discharged from Watford General Hospital.

“Luckily we didn’t trust what we were told and we kept an eye on her all night and we called an ambulance in the morning where she was taken straight to A&E at Barnet General Hospital.

“We were told that she had meningitis and septicaemia and was 30 minutes before the end of her life.

“In order to save her life they had to sedate her and put her on a ventilator while they wanted for the CATS team to come and transfer her to Intensive Care at Great Ormond Street Hospital.

“Our local GP in Borehamwood didn’t have a vaccine to give Lily and she was considered too old for it.

“We are hoping for a change in the age for children to be vaccinated. Every child up to 11-years-old should be given the vaccine.”

Lily was transferred to Great Ormond Street Hospital where she spent five days in intensive care and was heavily sedated with a machine breathing for her.

According to the parents, it was the longest five days of their lives.

Mrs Hicks, 29, said: “We lost all sense of reality. It was just not normal and it was very surreal.

“No words can express the feeling we experienced when on the fifth day we heard our baby girl cry as she started to come round and started breathing for herself.”

According to Mrs Hicks the vaccine is apparently ‘too expensive’ to make although she found out that it costs roughly £20.

She said: “If you think about how much it costs to look after a child who survived meningitis but has a side-affect it can cost up to £250,000. £20 is nothing compared to that.”

“There is no doubt in our mind how close Lily came to losing her life and we know that if we had decided to accept Watford’s diagnosis as our final decision Lily would not be here today.”

Now the couple are helping the national petition to raise awareness of meningitis B and they were approached by others who have been in similar situations.

In order to raise awareness the couple have started an online petition and throughout the year they will be holding fundraising events in the hopes to raise as much money as they can for the cause.