Thousands across Black Country and Staffordshire demand free Meningitis B vaccination for all children

The petition has attracted floods of signatures after the parents of Faye Burdett, a two-year-old from Kent who died of Meningitis B on Valentine's Day shared a picture of her in hospital on Facebook, urging people to sign the petition.

Across Wolverhampton, a total of 1,078 people have signed a petition while 943 put their name down in Walsall and 762 in West Bromwich.

In Staffordshire, 783 people backed the campaign in Stafford and 749 in Cannock.

Elsewhere in the Black Country, 931 people in Dudley gave their support as well as 577 in Stourbridge and 588 in Halesowen.

Her family shared photographs, including one of her in hospital, which have been widely shared all across social media.

The petition, which was set up by Lee Booth, has so far attracted over 477,000 signatures across the UK, which means Parliament must discuss the issue as it has crossed the 100,000 threshold.

Mother of Faye, Jenny Burdett has called on people to sign the petition asking the Government for the meningitis B vaccine to be given to all children, not just newborn babies.

"All children are at risk from this terrible infection," she said. "There needs to be a rollout programme to vaccinate all children, at least up to age 11."

Since September last year, a vaccine to protect against meningitis B has been available on the NHS for babies aged two months, followed by a second dose at four months and a booster at 12 months.

Parents who wish to have older children vaccinated must pay privately, although a worldwide shortage of the vaccine Bexsero means stocks are very low.

England rugby world cup winner Matt Dawson has also urged his Twitter followers to sign the petition, after revealing that his family endured "two weeks of hell" as his two-year-old son fought meningitis C.Sue Davie, chief executive of Meningitis Now, added: "Our heartfelt sympathies go out to Faye's family and friends - they know we are here to support them in any way we can.

"We are using our voice to support the petition to raise the profile of meningitis, keeping it high on the political agenda and increasing awareness among the public to prevent more lives being lost to this devastating disease.

"Although the introduction of the Men B vaccine on the childhood immunisation scheme for young babies was a momentous achievement, saving thousands of lives, there are still so many, like Faye, left unprotected.

"Moving forward, we continue to campaign to see the Men B vaccine rolled out, particularly to at-risk groups, to ensure a future where no one in the UK loses their life to meningitis."

To sign the petition go to petition.parliament.uk/petitions/108072