So when she and her husband Michael saw a small ‘bruise’ on the right side of the young ɱaп’s forehead, that was the least of their worries.
“We didn’t think much of it,” Jean told Mirror Online.
But over the next few weeks, as Chloe’s condition improved, the mark grew rapidly “like a strawberry” and turned a bright red color.
As it turned out, it was actually a birthmark.
Chloe’s birthmark grew rapidly “like a strawberry” and turned bright red before ulcerating.
The mark began to “weigh” the young ɱaп’s eye.
Fast forward to today and Chloe (pictured with her mom Jean last summer) is a happy and healthy nine-year-old.
And in the months that followed, she grew larger and larger each day, eventually “weighing down” Chloe’s eye and festering.
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Strangers were looking at the girl in the street, while Jean and Michael had to be careful not to hit the area in case she bled.
“If she started bleeding, she would continue to bleed,” said Jean, from Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire. “We had to be careful not to hit him.”
When they were told there were no treatment options available and the mark would probably one day go away on its own, the couple was at a loss for what to do.
But fast-forward to today, her lives, and Chloe’s, have been turned upside down, after she was accepted into a trial for a new treatment.
Now that she’s nine years old, the spunky young woɱaп, left with only a small scar, proudly pins her hair back rather than insist on bangs.
And she happily tells her friends, “I’m a baby with birthmarks.”
Chloe is shown at 10 days old, by which ᴛι̇ɱe the birthmark had started to become obvious.
Strangers used to look at the girl on the street, and little boys would even try to touch her forehead.
A scab developed on the birthmark, which grew to the size of a 50p piece.
“Chloe is very proud,” Jean said.
“As she looks back at the photos [of her birthmark], she asks herself about it. If people ask questions, she’s quick to say, ‘She had a birthmark.’”
The girl was born eight weeks ahead of schedule in August 2009.
“I had a very easy, simple pregnancy, everything went well. I was getting up to go to work the morning my water broke,” Jean said.
“It came very quickly at 32 weeks. It was a normal delivery, gases and air. They tried to stop the birth, but there was no way to stop it!”
Doctors allowed the new mom to have a quick hug before she was treated for retained placenta and Chloe was taken to intensive care.
“It was four or five hours before she was able to see her,” Jean recalled.
“That was horrible.”
Chloe, who underwent a year of propranolol treatment, is pictured the morning of her first surgery.
She is smiling after undergoing the operation in August 2014.
This graph shows how Chloe’s birthmark changed in color and size after treatment began.
About a week later, doctors told her and Michael that the ‘bruise’ on her daughter’s forehead was actually a strawberry birthmark.
The pair were told that it would soon begin to change color and grow.
“The second week, we were really able to tell what they meant by the birthmark. It had turned a very bright red,” Jean said.
When Chloe was allowed to return from the hospital several weeks after she was born, the mark had begun to “grow like a strawberry.”
“We warned people in advance about her birthmark and sent photos. They were surprised, even more so because of how small she was, ”said her mother.
“We were very aware that the birthmark was growing every day.”
A dermatologist said Chloe’s birthmark would “eventually disappear,” but strangers were already starting to stare at her on the street.
Mama Jean says her daughter is now ‘so proud’ of her journey of scars and birthmarks
The girl was referred to Great Ormond Street Hospital after a passing doctor saw her.
“She would have people standing there, looking at her,” Jean said.
“By December, she started to get a little scab on her birthmark.
“We did not know what to do”.
Before long, the birthmark had grown to the size of a clenched fist.
“The scab was bigger than a 50p piece,” she added.
One day, when Chloe’s parents removed some of her clothing, the scab fell off of her as well, leaving behind an area of “infected shell.”
They returned to the hospital, where her luck changed.
“A passing doctor saw Chloe and interrupted our appointment to tell us about a ‘new’ treatment being tested at Great Ormond Street Hospital [GOSH],” Jean said.
Chloe, pictured before surgery, now likes to wear her hair pulled back.
She is seen at eight months of age after undergoing around two months of treatment.
The family was told the girl would be a “prime candidate” for referral. And just a few weeks later, she was in the London hospital.
In the weeks and months that followed, Chloe’s birthmark was treated with propranolol, which is traditionally used to treat high blood pressure.
The drug, while not suitable for all birthmarks or ‘heɱaпgiomas,’ can reduce the amount of blood that flows through them, GOSH says.
This can reduce the color of the marks and soften them, while the treatment can also limit cell growth, causing the marks to shrink.
“It speeds up the shrinking process,” Jean explained.
She added: “Chloe was in treatment for a year.
“At her biggest point, her birthmark was really starting to weigh on her eye.
Chloe, who has a little brother, Thomas, smiles from her hospital bed at the ᴛι̇ɱe of her latest surgery.
At its largest, his birthmark was beginning to weigh down on his eye.
“It almost looked like a lazy eye the whole ᴛι̇ɱe. We would be sitting on the subway and people would just watch. Small children would want to touch it.
She added: “Once they made sure it wasn’t growing anymore, they took us off the medication.”
For the next several years, Chloe had yearly checkups.
Eventually, she underwent three cosmetic surgeries that changed her birthmark from a “circle” to an “egg” shape, then to a “slide.”
“We were ecstatic with the results,” her mother said.
“How is the scar now, it is as if he had just had an accident.
“But hitting her head is exceptionally painful for her.”
Chloe, seen as a baby, underwent three cosmetic surgeries that changed her birthmark from a “circle” to an “egg” shape, then to a “slide”
When she was younger, Chloe would ask her parents to cut her bangs to cover her birthmark. Someᴛι̇ɱes she wore a hat.
“She was starting to get a little more aware,” Jean said.
“We would try to tell her that she is unique, it is what makes you special.
But today, the girl is “very proud” of her birthmark story.
“She likes to hold her hair back. She is now proud of her scar. She shows the journey she’s been on,” her mother added.
Chloe, her parents and her little brother Thomas have been supported on her journey by the UK-based Birthmarks Support Group.
Jean described the organization, which was created by parents of children with vascular birthmarks, as an “absolute godsend.”
“It’s for any type of birthmark, it doesn’t have to be a strawberry birthmark. There are so ɱaпy different types,” she said.
Chloe, pictured with little Thomas, has been supported on her journey by the UK-based Birthmarks Support Group.
“[It’s great] just being able to contact other parents or get some advice.”
She added: “Being a new mother was the hardest and loneliest ᴛι̇ɱe of my life, or at least could have been if it wasn’t for the help and support of the Birthmark Support Group.
“We soon came into contact with this group when Chloe was still young and for the first ᴛι̇ɱe we were able to share and compare stories with other parents and children and suddenly the world didn’t feel so alone.”
This year, the organization has been awarded a charity slot to the London Marathon, and Jean has been chosen as a runner.
“I am overwhelmed and honored,” she said.
Determined to “pay back” the group’s support of her family, she created a fundraising page to raise money ahead of the April 2019 event.