Allegra's legacy to save lives

While reading through the Saturday Weekend West I came across this article. I was really touched by the story of the tragic death of a six month old baby Allegra Scafidas. She was a healthy baby that was never sick and was regular with her vaccinations. It's was sad to know that she pasted away.

In May 2010 she died from pneumococcal disease, the upsetting thing is that Allegra was always regular for her vaccines and yet she was still affected from this disease and to know that she was not protected from the disease in her immunisation was a pity. The vaccine that could her life was not on the Australia's childhood immunisation schedule despite it was used in other countries.

It goes to show that the Australia childhood immunisation is not up to date with their vaccines. It took them a year after Allegra's death for the vaccine to cure the disease to be offered to Australian children.

The parents of Allegra was really devasted to what had happened to their baby so they decided to leave back a legacy for her. So they established the Allegra Scafidas Fund with Telethon Institute for Child Health Research by contributing $250,000 to go towards the research. These funds are to be used to set up a pneumococcal laboratory to have more research on the 90-odd strains of bacterial.

This goes to show that Allegra parents are concerned about the lives of other children that could be affected by the disease. Mr Scafidas quoted " We were unable to protect her and we only wish the vaccine that could have saved her had been available when she went for routine six-month vacination a week before she became ill". Allegra parents are very upset that the vaccination was not available for their daughter. The Scafidas want to give other children the oppportunity to have the vaccine their daughter couldn't have.

I am really happy to see that they're are doing something to help other children despite their daughter didn't have the chance. I am really glad to see this.

May Allegra soul rest in peace and all my sympathy towrads the Scafidas family, may her funds bring change to many children lives.

Martha xx