The family of meningitis tot Kia Gott are hoping thousands of people will sign an online petition to bring back a routine vaccine they believe would have saved her legs and arms.

Surgeons had to remove all four of the 11-month-old’s limbs after she was struck down by meningococcal septicemia in September, leaving her fighting for her life.

Kia, from Wyke, is still in high dependency care at Leeds General Infirmary and her family has started campaigning to get the MenC vaccine reintroduced for 12-week-old babies.

The vaccine was stopped in July last year after the Joint Committee on Vaccination (JCVI) sent a letter to Public Health England in March 2016, recommending that infants aged 12 weeks no longer required the vaccination against meningococcal serogroup C (MenC) due to the success of the immunisation programme that started in 1999.

But relative Donna Gott said the vaccine would have saved a lot of heartbreak and NHS costs if it had been continued.

“Just one case is too many. Because that vaccine was stopped, Kia is fighting for her life,” said Ms Gott, who is a director of a Shipley-based care company.

“It’s not justified just because there used to be 700 cases a year which went down to just a handful a year. The reason why the programme was so successful is that they were giving it to babies at 12-weeks-old. It’s common sense to re-introduce it. Otherwise it will just ruin lives and cost thousands and thousands of pounds in care costs.”

NHS Choices says the success of the MenC vaccination programme meant there were almost no cases of the disease in babies or young children in the UK any longer and therefore the dose of MenC vaccine that used to be offered to babies at 12 weeks of age was removed from the vaccination schedule.

However, all children will continue to be offered the Hib/MenC vaccine at one year of age.

So far, more than 900 people have signed the petition at petition.parliament.uk/petitions/205842. It closes on June 1 next year.

At 10,000 signatures, the government will respond to the petition but, if 100,000 people support it, the petition will be considered for debate in parliament.

The family is going to contact Bradford South MP Judith Cummins to get her backing.

“We desperately need people to sign the petition and let’s get this debated in Parliament. We are hoping our own MP will give us her support,” added Ms Gott.

Ms Cummins said: “The family will definitely be knocking at an open door. If they contact me I would be delighted to take up this cause for them and do all I can to help.”

Meningitis Now has a free helpline on 0808 80 10 388.