"I lost both of my legs below the knee and also had amputations to my fingers so I experienced a pretty severe case of Meningococcal disease."
Since 2004, Australia has offered a free vaccination for meningoccocal but it only protects against the C strain - which is one of five.
The most common form of meningoccocal in Australia is the B strain but the vaccination that's commercially available is not subsidised by the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme.
The Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee has recommended against its inclusion but is understood to be re-considering.
Doctor Jim Buttery is an infectious diseases physician and paediatrician and a member of the committee.
"What we know about this vaccine at the moment is that it makes antibody against the bug and we know that where it's been introduced in Canada the safety profile appears acceptable. What we don't know yet is whether this vaccine works in preventing the disease and it's likely the information about that will come from England which plans to introduce it in September."
Dr Buttery says it's often hard to know whether a vaccine will be effective until it's introduced into a large population which is what's about to take place in the United Kingdom.
"It appears that England will be the largest population this vaccine is trialled in and the problem we have is for an uncommon disease, and meningococcal disease is an uncommon disease, it's just a very severe uncommon disease is that when you introduce a vaccine often you don't know whether it's going to work until it's been introduced into a large population. That's what happened for the HIB* vaccine in the 1990s which was very successful and then the meningococcal c vaccine in 2004. When both of these vaccines were licensed without knowing whether they worked we just knew that they were safe and they made antibodies that should protect against the disease and both of those introductions were proven successful."
The number of meningococcal cases in Australia has been steady in recent years from a high of 688 in 2002.
In 2004, when the meningococcal c strain was added to the PBS, there were 409 cases.
By 2014, the number of notifications had more than halved to 169.
Survivor Eliza Ault-Connell, who is the Director of Meningococcal Australia, hopes the meningococcal B vaccine will be put on the PBS and prove to be as successful as the vaccine against the c strain of the disease.
"Meningococcal Australia are advising the community that B is now the most common strain. The C vaccine that is being given as part of the national immunization program has done such a wonderful job of reducing numbers in the community. We only see a handful of cases now of C strain and that's from infants right through to adults so it's definitely had a wonderful affect. We would love to see the meningococcal B vaccine added to this immunization program because with it being so prevalent today within the community we can see it would have an immediate benefit on reducing numbers."
In the meantime, she's urging people to be vigilant for symptoms of the disease which can vary considerably and make it difficult to detect.
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