Giving my girl a kiss goodnight, I frowned at her tiny arms covered in bruises. Penny, then two, had suffered from several bouts of tonsilitis and hadn’t seemed to
ever fully recover – some of her symptoms just didn’t add up.
She seemed more tired than usual and along with frequent nosebleeds, I’d noticed she was bruising easily, too.
‘She’s not right,’ I said to my partner Jack, now 27.
So, the following day, I took Penny to the GP, with Jack at work and my eldest Phoebe, now 10, at school.
‘I’m going to refer you to Sheffield Children’s Hospital,’ the GP said. ‘I think Penny could have a low platelet count but she’ll need a blood test to confirm.’
At this point, I was just relieved that the doctor was taking my concerns seriously.
Telling Jack what the GP had said, I drove up to hospital with Penny,
