Tim’s Story

Tim’s Story

Timothy Britten CV is a senior sergeant in the Western Australia Police Force. After his heroic actions in the immediate aftermath of the 2002 Bali bombings, Timothy was awarded the Cross of Valour, making him Australia’s highest-decorated police officer. As an ambassador for the Immunisation Foundation of Australia, Tim has shared his debilitating experience with whooping cough, shining a light on the importance of adult boosters.

“At the beginning of 2011 I was very fit and healthy. I was in the Tactical Response Group, which is an elite squad of the WA Police, requiring a very high level of fitness.

In April of that year, I had to travel over to Sydney for work for a period of 3 weeks. Upon my return I became ill. I was bedridden and in an incredible amount of pain. I had no idea what was wrong with me, I thought I must be dying from some illness or disease I had developed.

I went to my doctor who did a series of tests and a few days later I received a phone call from him advising that I needed to come in as soon as possible.

When I got to his office, he told me that I had contracted whooping cough. I was in utter disbelief as I had been fully immunised when I was a baby.

It was then that I was told the whooping cough vaccine only lasts approximately 10 years, I had just assumed that once I was vaccinated against it, it was for life.

At the time this happened my son was only 4 months old. He was up to date on his immunisations but wasn’t old enough to have completed his full set of whooping cough vaccinations.  My poor little baby had to go through a series of tests to make sure that he hadn’t caught it off me. One of the tests involved us holding him down while a swab was pushed so far into his nose it brushed the back of his throat.

Thankfully he was given the all-clear.

My wife had also been fully immunised as a child, but she had also assumed she was immunised for life. She had to be vaccinated again as did other members of our family.

Whilst recovering from whooping cough I was bedridden and even once I was able to return to work, I was in so much physical pain every time I coughed and every time I breathed. It took a fair amount of time for me to fully recover.

I kept thinking about the sheer pain I was in as a fit and healthy man and couldn’t imagine how a little baby would cope with it.

The whole experience opened my eyes and educated me to the need for booster vaccinations. Immunisation has never been a question for me and this whole experience made me even more passionate about it.

- Senior Sergeant Timothy Britten CV