'My daughter nearly died after catching chickenpox - I back the NHS vaccine call'

The mum of a girl left fighting for her life after catching chickenpox has backed an NHS vaccine call.

Reign Passey, now five, spent three weeks in a Birmingham hospital and had to undergo a lifesaving four-hour operation to remove the flesh-eating bacteria, in July 2022.

She has been left with a large scar on her right side - which she tells people she got from "winning a fight against a crocodile". Leanne Passey, 32, says she developed strep A which turned her chickenpox into a flesh-eating infection.

NHS advisers said all children in the UK should be given a chickenpox vaccine at 12 and 18 months of age. The advice, issued by the joint committee on vaccination and immunisation, has also recommended a temporary catch-up programme for older children.

Leanne from Dudley, said: "If the vaccine will prevent any child from getting what Reign got then I support it 1000 per cent. I wouldn’t want any mother to go through it. It’s horrendous - you never expect it to happen to you until it does."

Reign came down with chickenpox on July 4 2022 and initially appeared fine, Leanne says. But three days later the mum noticed she had a temperature and was low on energy - symptoms of strep A - an infection which children who have had chickenpox recently are more likely to develop.

Leanne spotted a red ring around one of the sores on Reign's side and decided to take her daughter to a doctor who then recommended she visit A&E immediately.

Leanne then decided to take Reign to Birmingham Children’s Hospital. Leanne said: “I’d gone from a child with chickenpox to her needing to go in for major op - I was screaming and I thought there’s a chance she was going to die.”

Once they arrived, Reign was taken to the operating theatre immediately. Leanne had a brief opportunity to give her daughter a kiss and a cuddle before she was sent into theatre for four hours where the surgeon made a large cut into her side to remove some of the infected flesh.

Reign was then taken to intensive care, put in an induced coma to manage the pain and given breathing support. Leanne said: "They had to leave her wound open because of how fast it spreads.”

Leanne says doctors then started Reign on "ridiculous amounts of antibiotics" and she recovered. Reign is now "fully healed" and "doing very well." Leanne said: "She’s healed pretty much, she's obviously got some long term effects, which we will keep having to go back to the doctors for. We're not sure how things will go in the future, and she will have to have scar treatment at some point. We're not there yet, but she is much better. Reign is here and that's all that matters. If this vaccine would potentially save lives then I fully support it."