Last updated at 20:14, Thursday, 22 March 2012

Maryport tot Lillie-Mai Jackson was the star of a campaign to raise awareness about meningitis last Saturday.

CAMPAIGNERS: From left, Stuart McDougall, Anna McCauley, Gay McKie, Paula Little, Lillie-Mai Jackson, Mark Swift from Asda, Margaret Little, and Marianne Fleming from Asda

She made a guest appearance at Dunmail Park, Workington, where Maryport charity worker Stuart McDougall had set up a stall to inform people about the disease.

Lillie-Mai caught the disease when she was 14 weeks old and had to have both her legs and an arm amputated.

While Mr McDougall and helpers answered questions on the stall, Lillie-Mai’s grandmother Margaret Little led a team of bag packers inside Asda who were raising money for Lillie-Mai’s trust fund and for the Meningitis Research Foundation.

Mrs Little and Mr McDougall both said the event had been powerful and sometimes moving.

Mr McDougall said: “A lot of people came over to get information packs from us. There were also some whose children had meningitis, and we even had someone who had lost a child who commended us for what we were doing,”

Lillie’s parents, Rupert and Belinda, have allowed their child to become centre of the awareness campaign, which is supported by the Times & Star.

They want people to learn about the earliest symptoms to get vital treatment as early as possible.

They are concerned that too much focus was placed on a rash that appears on a person with meningitis, but they said that was almost the last symptom.

Lillie-Mai’s family and friends continue to raise funds to buy her prosthetic legs not available on the NHS.

The bag packing on Saturday raised £900 for Lillie-Mai and £200 for the Meningitis Research Foundation.

Anyone wishing to donate to the Lillie-Mai Trust, which is managed by a legal firm, can do so at any branch of the Cumberland Building Society.

First published at 19:24, Thursday, 22 March 2012
Published by http://www.timesandstar.co.uk