Les Beaucamps High Year 8 pupils Genevieve Bougourd and Levi Chatterton were among those to receive the HPV jab from nurse Shelly Insul. (Picture by Tom Tardif, 0647180)

FREE cervical cancer vaccinations will be available only to girls between the ages of 12 and 18.  Those over 18 will have to visit their GP and pay £240 for a course of three injections over six months.

‘The cost will not be as low as it might be because the vaccine itself, that is the manufacture’s charge, is relatively expensive,’ said a Health and Social Services Department spokesman.

The potentially life-saving HPV, or human papilloma virus, vaccine was introduced at the start of last month.

All girls in Year 8, those aged 12 and 13, are receiving it first. A catch-up programme for girls in Year 13, when they reach the upper age limit, is also being carried out.

There will be catch-ups for other age groups in 2009 and 2010. The department does know how many will opt to pay themselves, but the spokesman said that initial indications were that there was a good take-up of the vaccination programme in schools.