A young mother has warned other parents about a rare form of meningitis after it claimed the life of her four-year-old daughter.
Evie May died of Meningococcal type B just 24 hours after her family was informed she was battling the illness.
The "bubbly young girl" had only ever previously been ill with a cold, the Manchester Evening News reports.
But she contracted meningitis on Friday, March 22, though she was only diagnosed on March 26, a day before she died in hospital.
Her brave mum Courtney May, from Greater Manchester, wants to share her story to warn others.
The 20-year-old said babies have been vaccinated against the virus since 2015, meaning Evie missed out on it by a matter of months.
Courtney said Evie, big sister to nine-month-old Carter, was round at her friend's house when she began to feel ill.
It was just a normal Friday morning and she'd been her 'happy, normal self', she said.
"We'd gone out for breakfast, but then she didn't want anything to eat. She said she had a headache. We went back home and then my friend came to pick us up to go to her house in Moston.
"When we got out of the car she said she had bellyache. I said 'are you going to be sick?'
"I tried giving her calpol. She was sick in the toilet. Then she fell asleep on the sofa. Then she was waking up and speaking to me as normal."
The pair went back home, but Evie was 'heavier than normal' and feeling sleepy.
"I took her into the house and took her temperature. It was 40.1C. I rang 111 and they sent an ambulance straight away.
"I tried to wake her up and her eyes shot open. Her pupils went massive. Her arms and her legs went stiff. I didn't know what was going on.
"She was trying to go to sleep. The ambulance came within 10 or 15 minutes. They told me she was having a seizure."
The paramedics put the blue lights on and sped Evie and her worried mum to hospital.
"I was petrified. She was still having seizures. They thought it could've been down to her temperature.
"I was absolutely terrified. When I think of seizures, I think of shaking. She was just going stiff. We got to hospital at 6.30pm," Courtney said.
When they arrived, medics put a cannula in Evie's hand. They told Courtney her consciousness was going.
Courtney said the period that followed was like a blur. They gave her daughter a CT scan, and gave her antibiotics, antiviral medication and anti epileptic medication.
Doctors told Courtney that Evie had suffered brain damage.
She was put in an induced coma and was taken to Manchester Children's Hospital for specialist care at around 3am on Saturday.
She was put on a ventilator and transferred to the paediatric intensive care unit. She spent four days there getting treatment.
But tragically, there was nothing that could be done to save her from the deadly infection.
"I just broke down. I just sat there thinking 'why has this happened?'", she said.
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"I still can't get my head around it now. I was hoping for the best, that she was going to get better. She's never been ill or in hospital.
"She's only ever been happy and healthy. I am 20 years old and I have never heard of Meningococcal type B.
"The nurses said there was nothing they could have done. She had it in her spine and her brain."
