Stephen Lewis reports on one woman's struggle for the right to choose how her child was vaccinated.

LIKE any good parent, Katy Hyde wanted to do what was best for her child. So when she began reading in newspapers about fears there may be a link between the combined measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine and the onset of autism in children, she was alarmed.

Her five-year-old daughter Emma had had the vaccine a few years earlier, without any long-term ill effects.

But with her son Benjamin nearing his first birthday and approaching the age when he'd be asked to go for his vaccination Katy, a lab technician working on cancer research at York University, began thinking.

There were a couple of other mums at her children's playgroup who shared her concerns; and soon she'd learned that in Japan, the combined MMR vaccine had been banned.

"I'm not a scientist," she says, modestly despite her health sciences degree. "I cannot say there is or is not a link. But I thought there's definitely something there that needs looking at."

To be safe Katy, from Haxby, decided she'd prefer Benjamin to have his measles, mumps and rubella vaccinations done separately. She might as well have asked for the moon.

"I went to the NHS thinking that because I'd read into it and had expressed a view they would try their best. But it just seemed to be a blanket no. I got turned down straight away at the surgery, so I went further, to the health authority. They advised me to write to the person in charge of vaccines, and I got a letter back saying no, it is not available on the NHS at all. There was no choice, no discussion. It was just no."

Katy says she's just a normal mother with a concern to do the best for her child. She admits she is not in a position to know whether there is a link between MMR and autism. But while there was any doubt at all, she says, she was not prepared to take the risk.

For that, she says, she was made to feel as if she was stupid: not by her doctor, but by officials at the health authority. One even rang her at home. "They just kept saying there is no link, there is no link and you cannot have it. They made you feel as if you're stupid.

"But I don't feel as if I was stupid. I don't mind being wrong. If there is no link, that's fine. But until the research has been sorted out, I don't want Ben having the MMR. If something had happened to Ben, I wouldn't have been able to face myself."

In desperation, she turned to the Internet. There, she found the address of the charity Jabs (Justice, Awareness and Basic Support) which is campaigning for the MMR vaccination programme to be suspended until proper research has been undertaken.

They put her in touch with a private GP in Surrey who was able to offer the vaccinations separately. He's one of a handful of medical practitioners in the country prepared to do so.

Luckily, Katy has family in Surrey. A few weeks ago, she drove Ben down there to have his first jab, measles."We got stuck on the M25," she said. "It was so hot, and Ben was sick. I had to pull over onto the hard shoulder. It was very stressful."

She says when she got to the doctor's home there were parents from all over the country who had brought their children to be vaccinated - all prepared to make the journey and pay the £100 cost if it meant they could have peace of mind.

Katy now faces a return journey to Surrey in six months or so for Ben to have his mumps vaccination: although she hopes she may get his rubella vaccination done locally.

She admits to being deeply disappointed with the way she was treated by the NHS - not with her GP, who was merely complying with NHS guidelines, but with a system which attached so little importance to parental choice.

The Department of Health continues to insist there is no evidence of any link between MMR and autism, although the Medical Research Council did announce earlier this year that it was launching one of the largest studies of autism ever attempted to try to find out what causes the condition.

Dr Phil Kirby, consultant in public health with North Yorkshire Health Authority, conceded there was an important issue of parental choice, but stressed again there was no evidence of any link.

He said Department of Health policy on immunisation, by which the health authority had to abide, was that separating the vaccines and giving them several months apart would result in a 'falling off' in the number of parents turning up with their children for the later vaccines. The vaccines were therefore not offered separately.

Jabs insists it is up to the Department of Health and the drugs companies to prove the combined vaccine is safe, rather than the other way round. While there is a questionmark over MMR, parents should have the right to choose to have the vaccines separately.

Spokesman John Fletcher said;: "In other countries parents have the choice. It seems in this country they're more concerned with sticking to their policy than giving parents a choice."

Jabs can be contacted at 01942 713565 or via their website at www.argonet.co.uk/users/jabs.

They have details of three private doctors in Britain one in London, one in Surrey and another in Edinburgh who are prepared to offer the vaccinations separately.

PICTURE: Katy Hyde with her son Ben over whom she battled the health authorities about vaccinations.