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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.
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“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