For so many years, Tiff McLeod sat next to a cot in Auckland Starship Hospital with a very sick little girl in it, and the arms of her other scared little girl tightly wrapped around her neck, wishing for a different life for her daughters.
Many times in between it felt impossible. Tiff never dared to dream that younger daughter Eva Mitchell – who doctors initially said wouldn’t be born alive – would make it past childhood.
“But now here we are!” exclaims her triumphant and proud mum. “Eva has just turned 16 and is proof that miracles exist.
“I would have thought we’d be complete fruit loops and have lost the plot by now. I think about those long nights sitting on the ward and it was so terrifying feeling that Eva would never ever get better – in fact it got worse – and we felt so lost in the world. Now she’s thriving and finding her way in the