A CAMPAIGNER who claims her life was “ruined” by the HPV cervical cancer drug is renewing calls for the NHS to check its safety.

Last month Public Health England published data which showed the number of type 16 and 18 human papilloma virus infections decreased by 86 per cent in women aged 16-21 between 2010 and 2016.

The data, published in the Journal of Infectious Diseases, also highlighted declines across five high-risk HPV types which together cause about 90 per cent of cervical cancer cases, as well as low-risk HPV types.

But Nicole El-Safty believes an end should be put to the immunisation programme after her health spiralled downwards after she was immunised, aged 14.

She said: “I’d like to see the local authority push the Government to look at this vaccine to see if there’s any correlation as to why girls are being affected how they are, and if there is any way they can put a stop to it.

“I don’t want to see any other families go through what mine had to.”

Now 19, former dancer Nicole, of Clacton, can only walk a few steps with a stick before having to use a wheelchair.

The political campaigner is in chronic pain and needs daily medication to control the health conditions she believes Gardasil was the “catalyst” for.

She said: “Unfortunately, sometimes drugs have side-effects which can be lethal. Girls have died from the vaccine and there are girls who have taken their own lives due to chronic pain because it does depress you and makes you feel there is no way forward.”

As an Essex ambassador for the UK Association of HPV Vaccine Injured Daughters, Nicole facilitates an online support network for girls and their parents, who she says experience feelings of guilt as a result.

She said: “Mums will say it’s not what they wanted for their child, or expected, and a lot will say it’s ruined their daughters’ lives, and I can understand that.

“There are a lot of frustrated mothers who can’t forgive themselves.”

But Public Health England say the vaccine is “the most effective way for young girls and women to protect themselves against cervical cancer” – the most common cancer affecting women under 35.

A spokesman added: “As with all vaccines, the safety of the HPV vaccine is under constant review.

“Every report of a suspected side-effect is taken seriously.

“Health authorities around the world, including UK experts, the World Health Organisation, the US Centre for Disease Control and the European Medicines Regulator, have recently extensively reviewed the vaccine’s safety and concluded there is no credible evidence of a link between the HPV vaccine and a range of chronic illnesses.

“The European Medicines Agency has also ruled out a link to Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome.”

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