A teenager thought she had a bad cold, but it turned out to be something far scarier.
It’s that time of year where coughs and colds are rife, and with predictions of one of the worst flu seasons ever ahead, it’s more than likely you’ll feel rough at some point.
Sophie Bell complained of daily headaches along with cold-like symptoms for around a month in October.
The headaches were so bad that she was frequently bedbound with pain.
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Sophie, 17, thought her health issues were just severe cold until she woke up to find her left eye had swollen badly and was bulging out from the socket.
Her concerned mum, Carol, thought it was an infection caused by the pharmacy assistant rubbing her eyes so much to ease the pressure of the agonising headaches.
She managed to get antibiotics, but despite taking the course, the inflammation worsened leaving Sophie unable to see properly.
The 17-year-old believed she was simply under the weather, until she woke up on 29 October with a swollen, bulging left eye.
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Worried Carol took Sophie to Moorfields Eye Hospital in London, where she received the horrifying diagnosis of orbital cellulitis.
Orbital cellulitis is a serious infection of the fat and muscles around the eye, and she was told it was caused by her cold turning into a sinus infection.
Terrifyingly, the infection had spread from her sinus to her brain, and she was told she needed urgent neurosurgery.
She had a section of her skull cut out to remove the infection, during a nine-hour surgery.
Fortunately, following the surgery she has gone on to make a 'miraculous recovery', and Sophie is keen to raise awareness of the dangers.
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Sophie recalled: "I felt really unwell while I was at work. I had a headache and just didn't feel 100 percent.
"This headache I had was from a common cold, I had a headache basically every day.
"There was a week where I couldn't get out of bed, I was in so much pain."
She remembers waking up to find her eye was like 'a golf ball'.
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Sophie said: "I spent the whole weekend in a dark room because my eye was so painful.
"It was so full of pus, the infection had started to seep out of it. I couldn't see out of it, it was blurry.
"The next day, my brother messaged his work friend whose wife is an ophthalmologist and she said I need to go to hospital because she thinks I have orbital cellulitis, which can be fatal.
"[The doctors] said it was life-threatening. Within 12 hours, they said they had to shave my hairline and I had to have major neurosurgery.
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Unsurprisingly, the teenager was terrified when doctors shared their concerns: "I was really scared, I broke down, they told me this could be fatal, I could be paralysed... it could turn into meningitis."
Sophie said: "I never thought a common cold could turn into this.
"I thought I would be alright with paracetamol.
"My advice to other people is don't leave things. If you think something is wrong, you're fully entitled to have it checked out. Trust yourself and your own instincts."
Jen Thomas