Mother's measles vaccination plea

Ms Nicholson said her two children almost died

A County Durham mother has urged parents to have their children vaccinated, after almost losing her teenage son and daughter to measles.

Gary Bridges and Billy-Jean Nicholson, from Newton Aycliffe, developed serious complications after contracting the highly-contagious illness.

Now their mother Lisa has urged parents to take up the MMR vaccine to avoid the "living hell" she went through.

The North East is in the grip of the worst measles outbreak in 20 years.

In recent weeks more than 100 measles cases have been confirmed and at least 100 more are being investigated.

Ms Nicholson said neither of her children had been immunised as babies because of concerns over the safety of the MMR vaccine.

She said: "I thought I was going to lose them both. I was absolutely mortified to see them go through this illness.

"People don't realise just how serious measles can be. It's been pure hell in this house for about a month."

Sight loss

Both her children were running dangerously high temperatures. Gary, 16, also had to cope with chronic vomiting, a body rash and sight loss.

His 15-year-old sister had to be given oxygen by a paramedic after the condition triggered an asthma attack.

Director of public health for County Durham and Darlington Dr Tricia Cresswell said: "Measles has become thought of as a mild and unimportant disease.

"But it is in fact a serious killer and every year more than one million children in the developing world die from measles.

"It's never too late for a child to have the MMR vaccination, which is free and available from GPs."

Extra vaccination clinics have been set up on Teesside and in County Durham in an effort to ease the outbreak.