Award for Meningitis Research Foundation

02 Oct 2018

Meningitis Research Foundation (MRF) is delighted to have been awarded ‘Communications Campaign of the Year’ at the Third Sector Awards. This was awarded for MRF’s 2017 campaign One Life One Shot.

MRF’s Chief Executive Vinny Smith accepted the award at a ceremony in London on Thursday 20 September.

Rob Dawson, Director of Communications at MRF said, “We’re over the moon to have won this prestigious award but we couldn’t have achieved such a successful campaign without the help of our amazing supporters who bravely shared their stories to raise awareness of the MenACWY vaccine. Thank you to everyone who made a difference and helped improve uptake of the vaccine.”

The MenACWY vaccination programme was introduced for teenagers in 2015 to stop a rapid rise in cases of the new and particularly deadly MenW (meningococcal group W meningitis and septicaemia).

Since then, uptake of the vaccine has been high in teenagers who have been offered it through school. However, older teenagers (year 13 school leavers) needed to book an appointment with their GP to get their free vaccine, and Public Health England (PHE) data showed that uptake among people who left school in 2015 and 2016 had been worryingly low.

The One Life One Shot campaign aimed to increase uptake of the vaccine. Data from PHE shows that raising awareness helped and uptake of the vaccine improved during the campaign period.

To check eligibility for the vaccine visit: www.meningitis.org/oneshot.

Media contact

Elaine Devine - Director of Advocacy, Communications & Support

Tel: 0333 405 6248

elained@meningitis.org

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