It was Wednesday March 27, 2013 in Perth when my son Brody became very unwell. He was only three months old and he was very unsettled and had flu-like symptoms. I continued to monitor him throughout the night to see if his symptoms worsened.

By Thursday the next day Brody had a slight temperature. He slept all day waking periodically with a glazed look, looking passed us and staring. He refused to eat. He then developed this high pitched inconsolable scream during the day and by that evening it became a very sad whimper of pain. I increasingly became concerned as he was my first child and as I was a first time mum I was worried, because I had to guess a lot of the time what was wrong with him, because at that age they can’t really express their emotion except through crying or smiling, it could’ve been anything.

It was now Good Friday, and for my husband Brett and I there was nothing “Good” about it. Brody began to deteriorate fast. There was blood found in his nappy, he managed to drink 40ml of milk to only projectile vomit, he turned blotchy grey and went limp.

Brett and I rushed him to our local hospital. We were fortunate it was Easter, most families had gone away for the holidays and the roads were very quiet, so we managed to get to the hospital quickly.

When the nurses and doctors saw Brody they rushed him straight into emergency and performed a lumbar puncture. The results came through that Brody had Meningococcal B.

His signs were not good and the doctor told us to prepare for the worst. Brett’s family lived in the eastern states and mine were overseas on holiday at the time. The doctor told us to inform our families and get them to come to the hospital to say good bye to our little man.

I could only just think, “How can life be so unfair?” He is our first born and only new to the world, and already facing an uphill battle as he fights for life on this massive hospital bed that he’s dwarfed in, whilst being pumped with drugs to keep him alive.

But by Easter Sunday our prayers are answered, Brody’s body reacted positively to the antibiotics and two days later he is out of the Intensive Care Unit, although he is still very weak.

He became stronger and stronger every day until he was finally discharged from hospital, five days later.

He is now a fit and healthy 15 month old and is taking on the world. We have had many follow ups with paediatricians, and specialists and we are constantly reminded of how lucky we are to have such a Strong, Fun loving boy in our life.

We were also lucky to come into contact with the Meningitis Centre Australia, which gave us support and information about meningitis and we now have become very good friends and associates with.