Hospital volunteer Juddie shares her story to encourage others to have flu vaccine

Hospital volunteer Juddie Hare knows how important it is to be protected against flu, after being floored by it the only time in 35 years she missed being vaccinated.

Juddie, who helps out in the audiology and phlebotomy clinics in Morriston and Singleton hospitals, has shared her story to encourage people to protect themselves this winter by getting vaccinated.

The 52-year-old from Swansea said: “I’ve been having flu vaccinations since 1990.

“I’m asthmatic and diabetic, so I know that if I don’t protect myself and go on to catch flu, it will hit me hard.

“It’s important for me to have my flu vaccine as early as possible, not just to keep me healthy, but to protect the patients that may come to one of the clinics I’m working in.”

Juddie believes she caught a particularly nasty strain of the virus known as Beijing Flu, which circulated in the early 1990s.

She said: “I think it was 1993, and I was majorly ill with that. I had lots of steroids, lots of inhalers, and I had a lot of nebulisers as well.

“I was just unlucky. I wasn’t well and so I couldn’t have the vaccine, which I had been due to have two days later. If it had been a couple of days earlier it may have prevented me from being so ill. Luckily I came through it.”

Juddie has other underlying health issues which can be exasperated by flu. And, having experienced it once, she is keen to avoid having it again.

She said: “Lots of people say ‘I have the flu’ but I know what real flu is like. People say, ‘I’ve had flu, I was in bed for two days’. No, if you get flu, you can be ill for several months trying to get over it.

“I would say to anyone, whether they have asthma, like me, or any underlying condition, it’s important to get the vaccine – for your own health, to look after you, and to look after the older generation in your family, so they can be kept safe as well.”

Swansea Bay’s Interim Executive Director for Public Health, Dr Gillian Richardson, said: “Although many think that flu is a harmless, time-limited infection, it can be life-threatening for some individuals, particularly if there are chronic conditions or poor immune systems due to disease or treatments.

“It can also lead to longer term issues such as post-viral fatigue.

“I would really urge anyone who is eligible to receive a flu vaccine this autumn to take up their vaccine, which has been bought for them to personally reduce these risks.

“Last year’s vaccine doesn’t protect against this year’s flu strain – the virus and the vaccine change every year. So don’t get sick, get smart and take up your flu vaccine. Let’s keep one step ahead of the flu virus!”

For more information about this year's flu vaccination campaign, follow this link.