At 8am Millie was bright and bubbly, by 5pm she was fighting for her life.

Last Tuesday, Millie went to school – bright and bubbly, as usual.

Her father, Tim Dawson, had no reason to suspect that hours later she would be fighting for her life.

The school called around 10.30am, saying the four-year-old was unwell. She went to the doctor who gave her a prescription and told her to rest. She started vomiting that afternoon.

She was almost unresponsive by 5.30pm.

But Tim still she had no idea his daughter had bacterial meningitis, or meningococcal septicaemia, because there was no sign of a rash – the most commonly known symptom of the disease.

Now, Tim is warning other parents about the early signs of meningococcal to spare them the heartache he and his wife endured as they desperately waited for their little girl to pull through.

He says the spots were “more like small bruises and scratches”.

The UK father’s initial post has already been shared more than 100,000 times.

After spending more than a week in a hospital bed hooked up to machines, little Millie was discharged from hospital yesterday.