THREE days before Christmas last year 18-year-old Kerry Harrington was sitting around a restaurant table pulling crackers with her family.

Despite a cough, she was entering into the festive spirit and putting up with the ribbing from her relatives telling her to keep her germs to herself.

But little did they know that the seemingly innocent tickle in her throat was the start of something infinitely more serious.

Kerry contracted meningococcal septicaemia and four days later, on Boxing Day, her family had to make the agonising decision to turn off her life support machine.

Kerry's mum Diane described how, on the Friday morning after the meal out with the family, Kerry got up as normal to go to her job as a nursery nurse at Bright Kids in Cleobury Mortimer.

"She was complaining of a sore throat and had lost her voice but was going in to work anyway," she said. "I made a joke that she wouldn't be able to shout at the kids but she said it was OK as she had big handwriting.

"But by noon they had sent her home. She made an appointment with the doctor because she felt so poorly but by 4pm she was so ill that she rang back and asked for a visit.

"No one came out as they told her it was a virus with flu like symptoms and that she would be fine. When I got home at 5pm she was being sick, had a really high temperature and one hell of a headache. By 6pm she was in bed and a mottled rash had come up between her shoulder blades."

Diane, 41, now knows that this was one of the red flag' symptoms - the early signs of meningitis or septicaemia which include cold hands and feet, limp pain and mottled skin and typically occur some five to eight hours before the classic textbook symptoms of rash, neck stiffness and impaired consciousness.

"I just wasn't looking for meningitis," Diane said.

"In fact, that night I went out to my staff party - after all, Kerry was 18 and I thought she just had flu.

"But by Saturday morning, Christmas Eve, she still felt awful and was being sick. But she was watching TV and didn't complain of light sensitivity or neck stiffness.

"By 11.30am she was fitting and so we called the ambulance. From the start of her complaining of a cough to this was just 18 hours. She never regained consciousness."

Diane now wants to use this week's Meningitis Awareness Week as a way of urging other parents to be aware of the signs of meningitis and septicaemia as early as possible.

"Since Kerry's death I have been in touch with the Meningitis Research Foundation and found out that anyone can get it," she said.

"The highest risk is for babies and young adults and the disease lies dormant - it is a secondary infection brought on by something like Kerry's cough.

"No parent should have to lose their child. I should have been in church watching her get married, not at her funeral."

"I'm hoping that I can save some other lives. If your child is ill and, after paracetamol there are no signs of improvement, don't bother going to the GP. Go straight to A&E."

Contact the foundation's Freefone 24-hour helpline on 080 8800 3344 for free symptoms information.

MENINGITIS AND SEPTICAEMIA: THE SYMPTOMS 1. Each year in the UK there are more than 3,000 cases of meningitis and septicaemia resulting in some 300 deaths. Although there are vaccines which provide excellent protection against some forms of the diseases, they cannot prevent them all. Awareness is therefore the key to ensuring a rapid diagnosis and prompt treatment.

2. The Meningitis Research Foundation is currently funding 18 research projects throughout the world.

3. Meningitis and septicaemia is the most common infectious cause of death of children in the UK.

4. Information on meningitis and septicaemia is also available on the foundation's website - www.meningitis. org - in 18 languages. An interpretation service is available in 120 languages through the 24-hour helpline.

5. Red flag symptoms include cold hands and feet, limb pain and pale or mottled skin 6. Symptoms of meningitis include: Severe headache;Stiff neck (unusual in young children);Dislike of bright lights (unusual in young children);Fever/vomiting;Drowsy and less responsive/vacant;A rash;Seizures (fits) may also be seen.

7. Symptoms of septicaemia (this form of the illness often starts with non-specific flu-like symptoms): A rash;Fever/vomiting;Cold hands and feet/shivering;Limb/joint/muscle pain;Abdominal pain (sometimes with diarrhoea); Pale or mottled skin;Rapid or unusual breathing, drowsy and less responsive/vacant.

8. Symptoms in babies include: Tense or bulging fontanelle (soft spot);Blotchy skin, getting paler or turning blue;Refusing to feed;Irritable when picked up, with a high-pitched or moaning cry;A stiff body with jerky movements or otherwise floppy and lifeless.