Brodie with his baby sister Zoey. Photo / Supplied
When a Perth mum discovered her surprise pregnancy, she had no idea how life-changing it would be for her three-year-old son Brodie.
The couple were delighted when their first son was born but when he was six months old, it became apparent that something wasn't quite right.
"He was hitting his milestones but he was starting to commando crawl and he wouldn't bring his left arm back in front to support his right side," mum Brenda, who did not want her surname to be used, told 7Life.
"Something just wasn't right … he was trying to walk but his left leg almost dragged behind him … he looked like someone who had a stroke."
Brenda had to battle with medical staff telling her she was "overreacting" but the family finally got answers when Brodie was 18-months-old.
He was diagnosed with cerebral palsy, a lifelong physical disability that affects movement and posture, with 34,000 Australians currently living with the condition that has no known cure.
Every 20 hours, an Australia child is born with cerebral palsy.
Doctors uncovered that Brodie had suffered a stroke in the womb causing the condition.
While Brodie started therapy, he began to regress to the point where he couldn't walk, dress or feed himself and would cry out in pain at times. There were fears Brodie could end up in a wheelchair for life.
But then Brenda discovered she was having a baby unexpectedly and a trip to the doctor changed everything.
She was seven weeks pregnant at the time and so unwell she couldn't keep food or water down.
While waiting to be seen, she stumbled on a pamphlet advertising an Australian stem cell trial after international studies showed encouraging results for cerebral palsy sufferers.
The trial involved harvesting stem cells from the baby's umbilical cord and transferring them to a sibling with cerebral palsy but Murdoch Children's Research Institute was seeking just 12 participants nationally.
Brenda believed this was the reason why she had fallen pregnant but the family had to wait until Brodie's sister was born before they could find out if the siblings were a match for the procedure.
It was an agonising wait as Brodie's movement continued to deteriorate but Brenda said she never lost hope.
Four months after the birth of their baby girl, who they named Zoey, the results came in and the siblings were a match.
"I couldn't believe it, we were all crying … it was such an incredible feeling," said Brenda.
The family were the eleventh participants in the trial and when Zoey was six-months-old, stem cells from her umbilical cord were transferred to Brodie.
The change was swift with Brodie moving his arm in one smooth motion just two weeks after the procedure and he continued to make daily improvements, while undergoing physiotherapy and occupational therapy.
"We just burst into tears again, he moved without even thinking about it, everything was so natural," she said.
"I really didn't think he would make any improvement this soon, but when I told the doctors they said other children in the study were receiving the same results … I couldn't believe it."
Brenda now describes Brodie as "just a normal kid" now who is running around, with his gross motor skills climbing from the 30th percentile to the 80th after the treatment, with specialists "dumbfounded" by the changes.
However, he is not completely cured of cerebral palsy and will still need to undergo treatment.
Now seven, Brodie knows it was "Zoey's blood" that helped him.
Meanwhile Brenda wants all children with cerebral palsy to be given the chance to have the same the quality of life of her son, calling for further stem cell research and therapies.