The twin sister of a toddler who succumbed to meningitis almost five years ago has been made Scotland’s second junior ambassador by a charity dedicated to fighting the disease.
Christina Dlugolecka will now be officially working alongside her father, Alan Glynn, to raise awareness for the Meningitis Research Foundation.
The six-year-old’s sister, Alexis Rose, died in February 2011 at the age of 19 months.
Alan spoke of his pride as Christina was made junior ambassador during the end of term assembly at Perth’s Inchview Primary School.
He said: “The charity only has one other junior ambassador in Scotland.
“She will be doing the same role as her dad, trying to spread awareness of meningitis and septicaemia in the Tayside community, and also fundraising but she’s ‘junior’ because of her age.
“She thinks her lanyard is a security pass and can open secure buildings but that’s just the kid side of her.
“We are all extremely proud of her. She’s one of my inspirations in life to be honest, she’s pretty amazing.
“It’s poignant because it was her twin sister that she lost and to turn something so tragic and so negative into a positive is amazing. If she can do that she can do anything in her life.”
He added that as she has grown older Christina has been made more aware of the family tragedy.
“She speaks about her sister in a positive way, which is so inspirational,” he said. “She speaks about how we are doing good in Alexis’ name and things like that.
“She’s fully aware that what we do is in memory of her sister. She’s aware now that it’s meningitis that sadly took her twin sister she asks loads of questions.”
Alexis Rose and her sister Christina were born almost three months’ premature and Alexis Rose weighed 2lb 12oz.
Both girls fell ill in February 2011 but Christina did not develop meningitis. She and older brother Billy have since been joined by little sister Amber.