A FORMER student who lost both her legs to a killer infection is backing a new campaign to protect young adults from a similar fate.

Kim Galvin was only 25 when she was suddenly struck down by the deadly C strain of meningitis.

"I didn't know much about the disease, I thought it was something that only affected babies," said Kim, who managed to raise the alarm by crawling across the hallway and banging on her flatmate's door.

She was rushed to hospital and admitted to an intensive care unit. Kim was so ill that hospital doctors gave her a slim chance of survival.

But somehow, she managed to pull through, although at a terrible price. Surgeons had to amputate both her legs at the knee in order to save her life.

Her brush with death and the devastating impact of meningitis means that Kim, now a creative manager with North-East radio station Galaxy and a mother of two, is strongly behind a new drive to immunise people aged 20 to 25 against Meningitis C.

"I just don't want to see the same kind of thing happen to anyone else," said Kim, whose radio station is carrying adverts as part of a campaign organised by Newcastle Primary Care Trust. For the first time, the adverts are being followed up by text messaging to mobile phones.

Kim, 35, has learnt to walk on synthetic legs, made by the same Dorset company that made an artificial limb for former North-East model and amputee, Heather Mills, fiancee of Paul McCartney.

This week she travelled back from Dorset with a new set of "for best" limbs, complete with high-heels.

The new national campaign is urging everyone aged 20 to 25 to get vaccinated against Meningitis C.

Young people are in a high risk group for meningococcal infection which can cause meningitis and septicaemia (blood poisoning). The highly effective new vaccine has already cut the number of cases in the under-20 age group since it was introduced in 1999. "Get it done, it's not worth taking the risk," said Kim.

People aged 20 to 25 should contact their family doctor to arrange for a jab.