Claire Hartley feared her five-year-old daughter Leah would die after the disease escalated into pneumonia.

And she today described the "guilt" she felt because she had never taken Leah or older brother Jack, seven, for their MMR jabs.

Mrs Hartley, 28, from Marsden Road, South Shore, said: "I've never been so frightened as when the doctor told me Leah had pneumonia. There was a while when she was so ill I thought I was going to lose her."

Mrs Hartley said coverage in the national press about alleged links between the vaccination and autism contributed to her decision not to take her children for the jab.

But she said: "I feel so guilty now that I never took Jack and Leah for the MMR jab.

"All I kept thinking as she lay in hospital was that this could have been avoided if I'd done my research properly.

"It isn't just mumps, measles and rubella you've got to worry about, it is the complications that these illnesses can carry.

"If the children had been immunised this never would have happened – I hate to think other parents could go through what we've been through."

And her call comes after The Gazette revealed last week how more than 30 children in the resort are suspected of having measles.

Six cases have so far been confirmed.

Leah, who picked up the disease from her brother, was rushed into Blackpool Victoria Hospital on June 4 and kept on a drip for four harrowing days.

Mrs Hartley explained: "She had an horrendous sounding cough, a sky-high temperature, an upset stomach, conjunctivitis and she couldn't stay awake.

"At one point she woke up and was hallucinating so she started screaming and crying, it really was terrifying.

"My mind was racing and I didn't think she was going to pull through it – I never would have believed measles could make anyone so ill."

Leah is now back with her family with just a few faint spots on her skin to show for her ordeal.

Controversial

The links between autism and MMR have never been proven and are now widely discredited.

However, the publicity attached to the controversial jab led to a nationwide downturn in the number of children being vaccinated.

Dr Steven Gee, expert in communicable diseases at the Health Protection Agency in Lancashire, has issued a warning to parents to get children vaccinated.

He said: "Measles can be a very serious illness.

"In rare circumstances it can kill or cause complications such as meningitis and encephalitis.

"MMR is safe, proven and effective. Two doses will guarantee lifelong protection against measles, mumps and rubella."