Cervical cancer vaccine was not to blame for Natalie Morton’s death, post-mortem confirms.

Post-mortem tests on 14-year-old Natalie Morton have revealed she died of a large malignant tumour, not as a result of her cervical cancer vaccine.

On Tuesday (29 September) Dr Caron Grainger, Joint Director of Public Health for NHS Coventry and Coventry City Council, said that the preliminary post-mortem results had revealed a “rare serious underlying medical condition which was likely to have caused death”, but said they were still awaiting further test results.

GSK also released a statement on Tuesday, to say it was working closely with the Department of Health and the Medicine and Healthcare Regulations Authority (MHRA) to fully support the investigation, and confirmed that the batch of vaccines, that Natalie received, was being tested.

However, following the opening of the inquest into her death, Dr Grainger, confirmed that the Cervarix vaccine, which Natalie received on Monday along with her peers, did not have a contributing effect on her death, but instead it was a result of an unknown tumour in her heart and lungs.

“We hope that this news will reassure parents that the vaccine is safe and that they should continue to encourage their daughters to be protected against cervical cancer. The HPV vaccination programme will continue as planned in the city from Monday.”