HAMPSHIRE teenagers could be given access to a life-saving vaccine, a cancer trust has revealed.

Teenage Cancer Trust is calling for the human papillomavirus vaccination programme to be extended to all 13 to 24-year-old boys and young men who want it.

The charity claims more than a million teenage boys in the UK will miss out on the vaccination, leaving them at risk of HPV-related cancers in adulthood that could be prevented.

This comes as the HPV vaccine is being given to 11 to 13-year-old boys across the UK for the first time in this academic year alongside girls the same age.

New research from Teenage Cancer Trust found 75 percent of 13 to 24-year-olds in the South of England would want to be vaccinated against HPV even with herd protection.

Herd protection refers to the immunity some women and girls have gained from the NHS vaccination programme.

However, the study also discovered if teenagers and young men had to pay for the vaccine then 48 percent would remain unvaccinated.

Teenage Cancer Trust chief executive, Kate Collins, said: “The vaccine should be made available for free on the NHS to all men and boys up to the age of 25 who want it, as it is for women and girls.

"While it’s great some boys from this year onwards will have the same protection against HPV-related cancers that teenage girls and women have had for a decade, a generation of teenage boys and young men are being denied that chance.

“Parents of school-age boys may well find one child will get the HPV vaccine for free, whereas an older son will only be protected if they can afford to pay for it."

She added: "That simply isn’t fair, and the cost of around £150 per dose is unaffordable for many.

“Not vaccinating older teenage boys puts them as risk as it relies on the false presumption they will only have sexual partners who don’t have HPV. It also contradicts the NHS’s own message that universal vaccinations are for the common good.”

To find out more about Teenage Cancer Trust’s call for making the HPV vaccine more widely available to boys and men, visit: www.teenagecancertrust.org/hpv and join their #JabsForLads campaign @teenagecancer.