At 14 years of age, my daughter Allana would come home from school and either go straight to bed or have something to eat and then sit and watch the TV with tears streaming down her face. When I asked her what was wrong she said she felt so terrible but could not explain why or what was going on. This was just one of the ways her severe depression showed. She felt that there was someone brushing off her and that sometimes things moved in the room.

The mornings that she did go to school were very challenging. The best way to describe it was that we had to stay out of her way as she banged and shouted and raged around the house. Even when she went to school there was trouble as she got detention many times for not having her work done, she had a big problem concentrating and really was not able to do normal things. She cared less and less about her friends and spend her days in her bedroom. Despite trying really hard to get her to school and to get her to meet her friends, it was nearly impossible, there was always rows and she became more and more anti-social and harder and harder to live with.

She has missed so much school, her best attendance was about two days a week over the past year and a half. I took her to my GP who said that she was a bit young to put on anti-depressants at 14 years of age but that in a few months he would prescribe them for her. I told him, "over my dead body " would he put her on anti-depressants!

At Christmas time Allana got money from family and friends, I was really shocked that she didn't want to go and buy new clothes - up till this she was still interested in shopping. I was really worried and wondering what could cause someone to feel so bad about life. I know that depression can happen to people at any time but the severity of her depression was something I could not understand.

Not long after Christmas, I was chatting with a lady called Terrie who works with young teenage girls and she told me that many to them were self harming and suffering all kinds of mental problems. She mentioned to me that she thought that the Gardasil vaccine might be to blame for the huge rise in girls having these problems.

This was the first time that I heard anything about the vaccine being a possible factor in severe depression. I remembered that when she had the vaccine in first year at school I had to go in to collect her each time as she was not fit to stay in school. When I told Terrie about my own daughter suffering severe depression, she advised me to go and see a man she knew, who could help with all sorts of problems. She personally recommended him as she herself had had bad depression, also some of the girls she was working with had gone to see this man. I remember being so happy at the thought that there was something that could help .

To cut a long story short, I took Terrie's advice and brought Allana to see Hans. After just one visit and one homeopathic remedy Hans is now "God " in our home. He has made Allana well and really lifted her spirits. She is now going to school, doing her homework and over the past months did her mock examination which she has done really well in. She is now a happy young woman who is loving and caring, not crying or sleeping all the time. She has lots of friends and is enjoying her teenage years the way it should be. I really cannot stress how much Hans has helped Allana, he has indirectly helped the whole family. I can now sleep content knowing my little girl is in good hands.

If Gardasil is the cause of Allana's depression, I cannot say for sure - but it would explain the severity of her depression and the timing of her depression. When I remember back, things started getting worse and worse after she started secondary school. She got the three doses of Gardasil, and each time I was called to the school to collect her. The main thought in my head was what could be causing her depression to be so bad.

I do remember that when the leaflet came home from school, I had no problem signing the consent form as I thought that if the HSE are promoting it, that it's the right thing to do.