Trevor Evans (Brisbane, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Last year on 3 September, Zoe McGinty, a 20-year-old from Brisbane, tragically passed away from what was, at the time of her passing, an unknown illness. Her mother, Kirsten, watched as her daughter's condition progressively worsened from what seemed at first a common gastro bug. Soon Zoe was losing the feeling in her legs. Kirsten did everything she could. Ambulances, then further paramedics, arrived as Zoe's condition deteriorated. Before midnight she was in the hospital, and before 2 am she had, sadly, passed away. That night, amidst the grief and the shock, Kirsten said neither the paramedics nor the emergency doctors knew what had taken her daughter, a fit, bright young woman. Only later did doctors realise there was a slight purple and red discolouration on Zoe's stomach, which led them to the diagnosis of a strain of meningococcal.

Kirsten has a message for all of us: don't wait for the rashes to appear. There are vaccinations that can save lives. She's trying to channel her indescribable loss into something positive, spreading her story and promoting meningococcal vaccinations. I welcome her recent appointment as the Queensland representative for Meningococcal Australia. This month, this government has announced that it will add a quad-strain vaccine to the National Immunisation Program which will cover against A, C, Y and W strains, the W strain being the strain which Zoe unfortunately contracted. I wish Kirsten all the very best on her new path of advocacy.