A teen who found she kept rubbing her eye was horrified when she learned it was a killerinfection triggered by a cold - and needed brain surgery.

Sophie Bell had been suffering from a cold and daily headaches for around a month in October, which left her bedbound in debilitating pain.

The 17-year-old, who worked as a pharmacyassistant, believed she was simply under the weather, until she woke up on October 29 with a swollen, bulging left eye.

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Sophie's mum, Carol Wright, believed her daughter had been rubbing her eye so much due to the persistent headaches that it had caused an infection.

But after taking antibiotics, Sophie's eye worsened, leaving her in excruciating pain and unable to see.

Concerned the infection was not improving, Sophie was taken to hospital where she was diagnosed with orbital cellulitis - a serious infection of the fat and muscles around the eye.

After undergoing numerous tests Sophie was told the infection, caused by a cold that had developed into a sinus infection, had started spreading into her brain and she would need urgent neurosurgery.

Shocked, doctors told the sixth form student that the condition was life-threatening and were concerned it may develop into meningitis. After a nine-hour surgery, in which a part of Sophie's skull was cut out to remove the infection, the student made a 'miraculous recovery'.

Now, Sophie wants to raise awareness of the potential dangers of sinus infections after nearly losing her life to what started as a common cold.

Sophie, who lives in Enfield, London, said: "I felt really unwell while I was at work. I had a headache and just didn't feel 100%. This headache I had was from a common cold, I had a headache basically every day.

"There was a week where I couldn't get out of bed, I was in so much pain. I woke up on the morning of 29th October and my eye had come out like a golf ball. My eye was huge. My mum thought where I had been rubbing my eye because of my headache it had caused an infection. I was proper rubbing my eye, it was bulging."

After visiting a walk-in centre, Sophie was put on strong antibiotics but grew more concerned when her eye began oozing pus and her vision turned blurry.

When her symptoms failed to improve, Sophie went to Moorfields Eye Hospital in London before being referred to The Royal London Hospital for urgent tests.

Sophie said: "I spent the whole weekend in a dark room because my eye was so painful. It was so full of pus, the infection had started to seep out of it. I couldn't see out of it, it was blurry.

"The next day, my brother messaged his work friend whose wife is an ophthalmologist and she said I need to go to hospital because she thinks I have orbital cellulitis, which can be fatal. [The doctors] said it was life-threatening. Within 12 hours, they said they had to shave my hairline and I had to have major neurosurgery.

"It was really daunting, everyone had concerns. I was really scared, I broke down. They told me this could be fatal, I could be paralysed. They were really concerned.

"It was scary, [they said] it could've turned into meningitis. They said they hadn't seen anything like this in a while and I was a top priority in the hospital."

Mum-of-three Carol added: "My world fell apart. I felt guilt for not taking her to the doctors before because she kept getting better." Sophie was told her common cold had turned into a sinus infection that had then developed into orbital cellulitis, which had started spreading into her brain.

After a nine-hour surgery, which involved removing a part of Sophie's skull, she was taken to intensive care and remains in hospital recovering from the operation.

Sophie said: "I never thought a common cold could turn into this. I thought I would be alright with paracetamol."

"My advice to other people is don't leave things. If you think something is wrong, you're fully entitled to have it checked out. Trust yourself and your own instincts."

This is an infection in the soft tissue surrounding the eye, resulting in redness and swelling around the eye and eyelids, an inability to open the eye and pain and discomfort. Increased orbital pressure can cause irreversible loss of vision by obstruction of the optic nerve or retinal blood supply.