A four-year-old girl was left hospitalised for two months after catching chickenpox. Olivia Elliot, now five, woke up vomiting and complaining of a headache in June 2025 but mum, Rebecca, 31, initially thought she had just picked up a bug.
But when the girl toppled on one side and couldn't grip her mum's hand she was rushed to hospital and her condition rapidly deteriorated. After CT scans, MRI scans, blood tests and a lumbar puncture, doctors confirmed the four-year-old had suffered a stroke.
Chickenpox linked to stroke
They discovered severe inflammation in one of the main arteries supplying her neck, which specialists believe had been triggered by the chickenpox virus she contracted in Christmas 2025. Olivia temporarily lost movement down the left side of her body, her speech became slurred and one side of her face drooped. She spent almost eight weeks in hospital before beginning the long road to recovery.
Rebecca, who founded the charity 'Olivia's Steps' and is from West Lothian, Scotland said: "I didn't think children as young as four could have strokes. A simple headache turned out to be something really serious. She had chickenpox in December, just before Christmas, she had lots of spots but she wasn't unwell really. I thought we'd had an easy case."
Premature birth and cerebral palsy
Rebecca became pregnant with identical twins during the Covid pandemic, before doctors diagnosed selective growth syndrome during the pregnancy. Following the loss of Olivia's twin, Olivia was born nine weeks premature and was later diagnosed with mild cerebral palsy after brain damage was detected as a baby.
Despite years of physiotherapy, Rebecca says Olivia's determination helped her become increasingly independent. Rebecca said: "She'd worked so hard to get to where she was."
Then, shortly before Christmas, Olivia caught chickenpox. After making a full recovery, the family had no reason to think anything was wrong. Then, six months later, everything changed.
Stroke symptoms and hospital dash
Rebecca remembers her husband waking her after finding Olivia being sick. Olivia had been throwing up clear liquid, which Rebecca thought was odd, and started complaining of a headache. Rebecca and Olivia decided to stay at home for a "sick" day. But when Olivia couldn't sit up on the sofa and kept falling onto her left side, Rebecca grew worried.
They decided to play darts, but Olivia, who is left-handed, couldn't grab the dart with her left hand. Initially, Rebecca wondered if it was linked to Olivia's cerebral palsy. She told Sell Us Your Story: "I put my finger into her hand and said, 'Can you grab Mummy's hand?' She couldn't do it."
Rebecca called her business partner - whose speciality is brain injuries - and followed her advice to immediately take Olivia to A&E at St John's Hospital in Livingston. While seeing the doctor, Rebecca remembers that Olivia had an "unexplainable episode" while sitting in her mum's lap - but Rebecca knew something was wrong.
She said: "I started screaming, 'Something's not right. Something's happening to Olivia.'"
Recovery and charity work
As Olivia's speech became slurred and one side of her face began to droop, Olivia was transferred by blue-light ambulance to Edinburgh's Royal Hospital for Children for specialist treatment. Rebecca said the biggest shock came after Olivia woke from her MRI scan. When Olivia woke up, she could no longer move the left side of her body.
Rebecca said: "Her face was so drooped. It was heart-breaking. She couldn't eat or speak. The most heart-breaking thing for me was looking at her. She didn't look like Olivia at all."
Doctors carried out extensive investigations before identifying inflammation in one of Olivia's main brain arteries, which they linked to the earlier chickenpox infection. Rebecca said Olivia began improving after starting antibiotics. Doctors also reassured the family the stroke was unrelated to Olivia's cerebral palsy, although her existing condition made rehabilitation more challenging.
Olivia remained in hospital for eight weeks from June 29 until August 11 before finally returning home. Just days after being discharged, Olivia started primary school.
Before her stroke she didn't need a wheelchair, but afterwards relied on one at school while rebuilding her strength. Rebecca initially attended school as her one-to-one support. Now five-years-old, Olivia is walking independently around the house and uses a walker at school. Rebecca believes Olivia's years of physiotherapy before the stroke helped prepare her for rehabilitation.
She said: "Because she was already used to physio and hospital appointments, she fell into recovery really naturally. She never complains. She just gets on with it. She's such a tough kid. She's such a happy kid."
Rebecca also founded Olivia's Steps Foundation to support families of children with disabilities. She said: "Our journey is such a sad one, but it's led me to something so rewarding."
Warning to parents
Her message to other parents is simple. She added: "Her main symptoms were vomiting and a headache. Which you don't associate with strokes. Most people think of the 'BE FAST' analogy. Life is so busy and things are so easily skipped by."
"Strokes can happen at any age, at any time. In the first two weeks that she [Olivia] was in hospital we met two families who's children had had strokes. One little boy was on his second. This is something that happens to people. If something doesn't feel right, trust your instincts."
