Two children die from meningitis

A schoolgirl died from meningitis yesterday, three days before her 16th birthday.

Leanne Lester, a pupil at Banbury School, Oxfordshire, was taken ill on Monday night at her home in Banbury, and died in Horton General Hospital. A boy, 14, from the same school is recovering in hospital from a less serious form of the disease and two other pupils are said to be suffering similar symptoms.

A boy, Ryan Powell, two, of Llanrwst, North Wales, also died from meningitis at Alder Hey children's hospital in Liverpool.