When cousins Lauren Fernee and Jessica Cork were struck with meningitis within 24 hours of each other, their families feared the worst.

As Sussex partied into the new millennium, the two girls fought for their lives.

Now Lauren, four, and Jessica, five months, are on the road to recovery and both their parents are warning other mums and dads to have their children vaccinated.

Lauren's mum, Emma Cork, said: "While everyone else was partying, I was in intensive care holding my daughter's hand and she was deteriorating."

Jessica was admitted to the Royal Alexandra Children's Hospital, Brighton, with meningitis C symptoms on December 30. Doctors gave her immediate family antibiotics as a precaution.

Next day Lauren started feeling sick and her parents noticed the classic meningitis rash.

Her father Martin said: "One minute she just seemed sick and the next it was like a scene from Casualty, with people rushing everywhere trying to help her."

Lauren was rushed to the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, the closest intensive care bed available, but later transferred to the Alex, where she is recovering.

Emma, 29, from Brighton added: "I remember watching the news about the lack of intensive care beds on New Year's Eve and thinking it was lucky we

didn't need one. The next thing we knew Lauren was in intensive care."

Emma and Jessica's mother Cheryl, 26, said it is still not known whether the girls passed meningitis to each other or whether the cases are a coincidence.

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