Heartbreaking: Claire and Mark Timmins with their boy Mason. Photo / Supplied
Heartbreaking: Claire and Mark Timmins with their boy Mason. Photo / Supplied
WARNING: Some readers may find image disturbing.
A devastated mother in the UK has released these harrowing images of her young son just minutes before he died from Meningitis to urge people to look out for other warning signs.
Mason Timmins was just seven-years-old when he died of the disease and his mother, Claire, has become thelatest parent to try and raise awareness of the dangers of the killer.
Mrs Timmins is urging parents to be vigilant with other symptoms as Mason did not have the red rash most commonly associated with the illness.
He told his mother he felt ill one morning and died less than 24 hours later.
He had had the viral meningitis vaccination but contracted the bacterial disease and died in 2013. Mrs Timmins, 37, a teaching assistant from Walsall near Birmingham said: "It was very hard to deal with and still is.
"Mason was just seven-years-old and he was fit and healthy. He was always smiling and always had something to say.
"One Monday morning I heard him coughing and then he started to be sick - I thought it was just a sickness bug as to be honest I had seen him a lot worse and it was nothing out of the ordinary.
Mrs Timmins contacted her husband Mark, 49, a service engineer, who rushed home and the pair took their young son to the doctors.
Mason Timmins told his mother he felt ill one morning. A day later he was dead. Photo / Supplied
"We got to the doctors and he got really floppy," she said.
"The doctor said straight away he thought it was Meningitis and gave him some injections. "Mason then lost consciousness and he never regained it."
"We then found out that the Meningitis had already attacked his brain and he was brain dead. "He felt ill at 6.30am and by midnight he was brain dead."
His life support was then switched off the next day.
Mrs Timmins is supporting the petition to change government policy on the meningitis B vaccine.
The campaign was prompted by the highly publicised plight of two-year-old Faye Burdett, who was killed by the disease on Valentine's Day, coupled with the revelation that the two-year-old son of former England rugby captain Matt Dawson was battling meningitis C.
On releasing the harrowing images of her son's final moments, Mrs Timmins said: " It is quite shocking but that's what we want as hopefully it will make people sit up and listen.
"We want to raise as much awareness as possible and keep campaigning for this vaccination.
"It's very well for babies to have it but what about all the other children?
"There has been more and more cases and people need to think not only about the rash but the other symptoms as it can get hold quickly and can result in death.
"It is important to look for the rash - but there are other signs too."
