Mum's mission after Sophia's battle for life

Family seeking to raise awareness of disease that almost claimed girl's life

- HELENA VESTY

THE sound any parent dreads is their little one screaming in pain from their bed - and that's the nightmarish sound Holly and Paul Mckie heard coming from their three-year-old daughter's room one night in 2021.

Toddler Sophia was discovered by her parents while having a seizure, and she had stopped breathing. She was rushed to Wythenshawe Hospital but her condition worsened, and she suffered 20 more seizures within 24 hours.

She was admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU), and doctors found that Sophia was suffering from encephalitis, a disease which causes inflammation of the brain.

Now, the family want to raise awareness of the dangers of encephalitis, the disease that almost stole their little girl.

Mum-of-two Holly, 30, said: "Sophia had been unwell with a virus, which had struck the whole family, but on the night of December 3, 2021, she suddenly deteriorated. She screamed from her bed and when we went to check her, she was seizing and stopped breathing.