A HEARTBROKEN mother has urged people who are scared of needles not to use their fear as an excuse for failing to have a flu jab.

Angela Diamond lost her 12-year-old daughter Olivia last autumn, just weeks before she was due to have her flu vaccination at school.

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She said it is key for parents to be in contact with their child’s school and doctor’s surgery to find out about clinics as she found a flu appointment letter hidden behind Olivia’s wardrobe after she died.

Mrs Diamond said: “Olivia was petrified of needles so when she got her flu vac letter from school she stuffed it behind her wardrobe and I never knew about it.

“She must have seen it and thought ‘that’s a needle’ and decided for herself.”

The Accrington Academy pupil would have been given ‘a squirt up the nose’ with the nasal flu vaccine but died on October 9 from acute myocarditis, a rare heart infection, four days after falling ill with flu.

Acute myocarditis is a rare but potentially deadly condition that is most commonly caused by viruses.

The nasal spray flu vaccine is used for children aged two to 17-years-old who are rated as being ‘at risk’ from flu, such as children with long-term health conditions.

And although Olivia wasn’t ‘at risk’, the NHS was piloting the scheme in East Lancashire schools during and after Olivia died.

“My advice would be pay privately,” said Mrs Diamond.

“You never know what is around the corner – I would have spent the money.

“It wasn’t something that I had heard of.

“I didn’t know flu could kill a little girl.

“They say it’s rare but it got somebody from Accrington.”

On October 9 a memorial evening is being held at the Hope Centre to celebrate the former Peel Park primary pupil’s life.