Perfect dawn for summer solstice at Stonehenge
Thousands watch sunrise over Stonehenge on the summer solstice yesterday. Inset, sunshine on the stones A TEENAGER died from a deadly strain of meningitis after her school and GP failed to give her a vaccination that could have saved her, an inquest heard yesterday.
Lauren Sandell, 18, died from meningococcal W meningitis, which is particularly lethal in teenagers and university students.
She had been studying sports psychology and coaching sciences at Bournemouth University for just two weeks.
An inquest heard she was in her mother Sharon’s bed during a weekend at home when she began to hyperventilate.
Mrs Sandell said she thought her daughter was having a panic attack because she was stressed about starting university.
She told the inquest: “That’s the problem with this illness, it looks like nothing. My husband went to football with my sons and we were in bed chatting.
“When he came back Lauren was dead on the bedroom floor.”
Aggressive
Walthamstow coroner’s court in east London heard that Lauren’s school in Woodford, Essex, was vaccinating younger students but failed to inform parents that they would not be giving children in Year 11 to 13 the jab.
Guidance published by Public Health England two months before Lauren’s death stated GP surgeries needed to make parents aware of the dangerous strain.
A template letter provided for surgeries states: “It is very important that you take up the vaccination. It is being offered in response to a highly aggressive strain of infection. This disease can cause meningitis and septicaemia that can kill in hours.”
But the letter was never sent to Lauren or her mother.
Mrs Sandell said: “No parent, had this letter been sent out, would have ignored it.”
She told the inquest that about a week before Lauren was due to leave for university in September 2016, a practice nurse had mentioned to her in passing about the vaccination and said: “Let me know when she’s home next.”
The inquest continues. THOUSANDS of people celebrating the summer solstice were treated to a perfect sunrise at Stonehenge yesterday.
Cheers were heard as the sun glinted over the horizon at 4.52am, lighting up the centre of the Neolithic stone circle.
On the longest day of the year, the sun rises directly behind the ‘heel stone’, the ancient entrance to the monument.
Up to 25,000 people were expected to travel to Stonehenge but English Heritage, which manages the site, said only 9,500 turned up.
Visitors to the World Heritage site were urged to only bring small bags and alcohol was not permitted. They were asked to share lifts or take public transport to reduce traffic and pollution around the stones, and Wiltshire Police posted armed officers.
Kate Davies, of English Heritage, said: “Celebrating summer solstice is one of the highlights of the year at Stonehenge.
“It’s a great opportunity for friends and families to come together and mark the longest day of the year, as people have done for thousands of years.”