Taking steps to ward off horrible illness

Jo Wedlock gets her flu shot from registered nurse Lynda van Dam. Photo / Natalie Slade

Jo Wedlock caught a nasty dose of the flu last winter, so she has gladly accepted her employer's offer of a free vaccination to try to avoid a repeat.

Mrs Wedlock, the sales and marketing manager for House of Travel, received her injection last week.

Many employers pay for staff to be vaccinated to reduce absences.

Mrs Wedlake said she picked up the flu in Hong Kong in the middle of last year on her way back from Britain. She had not been vaccinated.

"I had a horrible year of being quite ill and having the flu, so this year I decided I didn't want to go through that again, particularly when the vaccination came up on offer."

She never found out if it was swine flu or another strain, as she was not tested. She sought telephone health advice and a nurse advised her to stay home. She was off work for about 10 days.

Her daughter Ava, aged 1 at the time, caught it too.

"She [Ava] was in bed and sick. She had lots of Pamol," said Mrs Wedlock.

She said House of Travel paid for staff to be vaccinated because they wanted to do "anything they can to keep people healthy and happy and working".