A MOTHER who nearly lost her teenage son and daughter to measles has urged parents to have their children vaccinated.

Gary Bridges and Billy-Jean Nicholson developed complications after both contracted the contagious illness.

The warning came amid a recent rise in the number of cases of measles across the North-East.

Neither Gary nor Billy-Jean were immunised as babies because at the time, their mother, Lisa Nicholson, of Newton Aycliffe, County Durham, was scared by adverse publicity about the MMR vaccine.

Now she is encouraging parents to take up the free vaccine to avoid the “living hell” her family has endured.

She said: “I thought I was going to lose them both.

“I was absolutely mortified to see them go through this illness. It has been pure hell in this house for about a month.”

When the pair became ill, they had dangerously high temperatures and both lost a stone in weight in a week.

Gary, 16, had chronic vomiting, a rash, delirium and sight loss, and his sister was rushed to hospital when measles triggered her asthma, her face swelled up and her eyes closed.

Billie-Jean, 15, said: “It was really scary. All the medical staff wore masks and gowns and I felt so ill I thought I was going to die.”

Mrs Nicholson said that in the Nineties, the combined MMR vaccine received bad press that put her and other mothers off, including her sister, whose daughter also went on to contract measles.

She said: “Now I have seen what measles can do, I certainly wish I’d had the kids vaccinated and would strongly urge parents to do the same.”

Dr Tricia Cresswell, director of public health for County Durham and Darlington, said the region was experiencing the worst outbreak of measles in 20 years. She said: “It is a real concern and we know it has happened as a result of the drop in uptake of immunisation following the unfounded concerns about the MMR vaccine.

“Measles has become thought of as a mild and unimportant disease, but it is, in fact, a serious killer.”