A mum who hit back at cruel trolls who branded her a "monster" for treating her son's facial birthmark is still hounded by internet bullies - even though she's following medical advice.
Brooke Atkins, 33, is a stay-at-home mum of two and spends her time caring for three-year-old Amarni, who has autism, and 14-month-old Kingsley.
Baby Kingsley was born in January last year and it soon became apparent that he had a large birthmark covering half of his face, known as a port wine stain.
Port wine stain birthmarks are typically harmless, but sadly Kingsley's is more serious as he has Sturge-Weber Syndrome - a life-altering condition that causes seizures.
As part of medical advice to treat the condition, Brooke, from the Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia, was advised to tackle the birthmark with a laser - but when she shared an update online she was met with a barrage of abuse.
Brooke tried to educate the bullies and sent them links that detailed her son's condition, but even now, while they manage the baby's seizures, she gets hateful comments online.
Speaking to The Mirror, Brooke said: "It's probably gotten worse, not in regards to his birthmark exactly - his birthmark clearance did really well.
"But with the rest of it, the Sturge-Weber Syndrome that is connected to it causes seizures. It started in October last year and since then he's had over 100, and he's been hospitalised six times this year alone, so we haven't had the best year.
"He's also had an operation with his eye for glaucoma, and we're possibly going through another operation in a couple of months.
"It's been quite difficult."
Previously, Brooke, who had two children with partner Kewene Wallace, 27, spoke out about the online abuse she received after sharing updates about her son's condition on TikTok, as trolls criticised her and called her a "monster" for choosing to put her son through treatment.
One person said: "Don't think I could laser my baby."
Another commented: "That birthmark is barely visible, what you're doing to him is horrible, it's more for you than him."
Someone else said: "Did you deadass laser a baby." [sic]
"Brainwashed mother making her kid insecure the second he gets out the womb," commented another user.
"Why is everyone supporting this," commented someone else.
Brooke, who has been supported by The Sturge-Weber Foundation and Epilepsy Queensland, continued: "With his laser, we were booked in for treatment last year in October. We had to cancel that because we were in hospital for 17 days and he was having seizures, so we couldn't do it then.
"That would have been his last one for a while. We're starting back up in another month or two depending, and he'll be under general anaesthetic then.
"I think this is what people were against, that he wasn't under general anaesthetic - he was awake - it is less risk for him because he's not under anaesthetic and the whole process is under two minutes so it's a lot quicker.
"They didn't think it was right that he could feel everything - he had numbing cream on but people were against it, they called it abuse.
"They said my child should be taken off me, I'm a horrible mother, I'm doing it for vanity reasons, I should let him choose when he's older, decide if he wants to get rid of it.
"It's just a lot of uneducated comments, but all from a concerned point towards my son, they were almost trying to stick up for my son but not realising they were doing more damage.
"At first I would just cry, I would get so upset, my partner would ask me to ignore it, saying they didn't know what they were talking about, and we were taking professional advice.
"I'd never really experienced that before, so it was quite full on and kind of hard to ignore. As time went on and it went into magazines and stuff and reports, it gave me more confidence.
"Positivity outweighed the negativity and that drowned out the negative comments. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but I can't make someone change their mind, they either have to educate themselves on it or just say what they feel towards me.
"I can either ignore it or respond, and I stopped responding - I started sending them links and saying they had to look it up and educate themselves before making opinions like that.
"The younger people would just try and argue with me and everything, by a couple of months in I didn't even have to respond, a lot of my followers would just jump on and respond themselves and I took a step back a bit.
"I'm going through enough, I'm dealing with enough, I wasn't sharing the videos to get attention I was trying to raise awareness of my son's condition - so I just stopped, it's not worth my energy.
"Now when it happens I block, it doesn't happen as much since his seizures started, I think people were starting to feel bad - you still get the odd comment when the news reports come out.
"There were some comments after that but nowhere near as much as when it first came out, so it means people are learning and changing their thoughts about it. It's just better now, to ignore it. I think I've learned to deal with it better.
"I think people say these things online but would never do it in person. The internet has turned people into something that they're not in real life.
"Whether they've gone through it themselves and taken it online I don't know, but their comments are a reflection of themselves rather than of me."
Port-wine stain birthmarks are typically harmless, but if they occur on the face or the eye area they are sometimes linked to glaucoma and the rare neurological disorder, Sturge-Weber Syndrome.
Sturge-Weber syndrome causes seizures and other disabilities, while glaucoma effects vision and can cause blindness.
Kingsley was diagnosed with both shortly after his borth, and Brooke was told his port wine stains would darken and change over time - causing complications later down the line.
Brooke added: "At the moment it's trying to manage his seizures, the thing with the syndrome is that it's ongoing, there is no cure to it - all you can do is manage the seizures.
"He's got right side weakness which is classed as mild cerebral palsy so managing that, just doing therapies every week, managing the glaucoma in his eye, and doing maintenance treatments on his face for his birthmark.
"The information has been mixed online, but a lot of people think doing the laser can prevent Sturge-Weber Syndrome but it's not to do with that, it's to prevent further health issues down the road that is to do with the birthmark itself.
"It can become lumpy, it can thicken, it can darken, it opens you up to vascular blebs where if you cut it you end up in hospital cos it won't stop bleeding.
"It affects his lips, his gums, one of his teeth is now broken off because of it. It can also grow, I don't mean spread across the face - it grows outwards.
"The elephant syndrome, that's the same thing that can happen to a port wine stain. It makes the face quite large on one side, wherever the birthmark is, that alone can cause problems.
"You can get an overhanging lip, it can cover your eye, it can worsen the glaucoma, so there's quite a bit to do with that - and that's the main reason for the laser treatment.
"Recent studies showed that you need to get treatments in the first year for it to actually do something for it to take effect, because if the skin is damaged as it gets older it's harder to treat, and the older it is the more resistant it is to the laser."
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