TV presenter's Chorley family takes lead on flu jab

11:17am Tuesday 14th October 2008

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Lancashire folk are being urged to follow in the footsteps of TV presenter Kate Garraway’s Chorley-based parents-in-law and have a free flu jab.

Ken and Carina Draper, parents of GMTV star Kate’s husband Derek, were recently given their flu jab at the Cunliffe Medical Centre in Chorley.

Ken, 68, a part-time health care assistant at Chorley and South Ribble Hospital, said: “I have been having my flu jab for the past ten years and it must work because I just never get the flu.”

His wife Carina, 67, a retired theatre nurse, added: “I wholly recommend the flu jab – we have to do the best we can to protect ourselves.”

Sheila Eckersley, practice manager from Cunliffe Medical Centre where Ken and Carina received their jabs, said: “This year’s campaign is going really well we have given 156 jabs already in the first week.”

Health professionals at NHS Central Lancashire are encouraging the over 65s and other ‘at risk’ groups to have the ‘flu jab.

Around 75 per cent of the over 65s living in central Lancashire had their flu jabs last year and NHS Central Lancashire is hoping to reach even more people in this year’s annual vaccination campaign.