A young girl's innocuous ear infection turned out to be a form of childhood blood cancer, with doctors saying it was one of the highest counts of leukaemia they had "ever seen".
Sophie, now 12, suffered a number of ear infections that didn't seem to get better over many months before taking a turn for the worse over a six-week period.
Mum Christine Tylee, 45, and her husband Paul Berude, 51, have two other children - Emily, 15, and nine-year-old Andrew - and said that Sophie went from being a normal and happy child to developing a number of worrying symptoms.
Sophie would often cry at the end of the school day if her mum didn't have the closest carpark because her legs were tired, Christine, from Australia, told 9Honey.
Her daughter was also complaining of a sore tummy and, because she has coeliac disease, thought Sophie may have inherited it.
It's only now, when looking at old photos, that Christine fully notices how pale her youngest daughter was after she began developing the incessant ear infections in 2016.
Her mum says Sophie was getting worse and worse over time, but it wasn't until the last six weeks of antibiotics that she didn't seem to be getting any better.
And by the time they returned to their family doctor, Sophie was tired all the time and struggling to walk so was referred for some blood tests and ultrasounds.
Just four hours after the blood test, the family received a call telling them to take Sophie straight to their local children's hospital.
"I could tell it was serious," Christine added.
"I thought of a million things, all racing through my head, but not one of them was cancer."
The family were rushed through after getting to hospital and Christine had called her husband on the way who arrived with her best friend, who then took Emily home with her.
Despite the gravity of the situation that was unfolding in front of them, Sophie was "remarkably good" as more tests were carried out.
The family were then dealt a bombshell diagnosis as it was confirmed Sophie was suffering from leukaemia.
Leukaemia is a type of blood cancer that affects white blood cells in the blood and bone marrow.
It's the most common cancer in children under 15 and, over here in the UK, over 650 children and young adults are diagnosed with it every year.
The diagnosis came as a complete shock, and the family were told that Sophie had zero platelets meaning even a paper cut would have led to her bleeding out in just four minutes.
Doctors treating her said it was typical for children with the disease to have between 50 and 550 leukaemia per millilitre of blood, but Sophie's number was closer to 12,000.
It led doctors to claim it was one of the highest counts they had ever seen, so Sophie underwent immediate blood transfusions before surgery to install a port in her chest for easier chemotherapy treatment.
She started chemotherapy the next day but was in a "bad way", and her condition dramatically worsened as she experienced a toxic reaction to the build-up of the chemotherapy and almost died on Christmas Day.
Every time she developed a fever she'd have to be rushed to hospital for treatment due to the risk of infection, meaning she lost over a year of school.
Cancer charity Red Kite helped provided resources to the family who had to explain Sophie's situation to their other young children.
Thankfully, after countless treatments, Sophie went on to make a remarkable recovery and was able to join her family on a skiing holiday and became a karate champion in the process - even if her condition is still being monitored closely.
"I think that I will probably always worry, but it is getting easier and easier the more I see her doing amazing things," added Christine.
"She's an incredible karate champion, she's skiing and embracing life and making up for lost time."
