A MUM'S worst fears came true when she found her 14-week-old baby turning grey and struggling to breathe just days after developing a cough.

Chloe Long and partner Matthew Gooding found baby Harper had also gone floppy on December 27.

The young mum from Brynmawr, South Wales had taken the infant to the GP just three days before after becomuing worried about her health.

But Harper's condition worsened and she ultimately needed to be put on machinery to help her breathe.

Chloe, 23, told Wales Online: "[On] Christmas Day she just slept all day. She was really unwell — usually she never sleeps during the day."

Terrified Chloe took Harper to A&E on Boxing Day where doctors assured her the problem was viral and in her throat rather than her chest.

But then things became even worse.

Chloe said: "The day after Boxing Day we woke up and she was grey, going blue and she couldn't breathe.

"It was really, really scary — I thought she was going to die."

The mum-of-one discovered the horrifying severity of Harper's illness when she undressed her to find her fingertips were turning blue and her skin was grey.

She added that Harper was "all floppy", so they rushed her to Nevill Hall Hospital.

It was there that medics told Chloe and Matthew their daughter wouldn't have survived if they didn't take her in because of mucus in her airways.

Harper had developed a serious infection in her respiratory tract called bronchiolitis which affects infants younger than two years old.

Because her situation was so severe, Harper was transferred to Noah's Ark Children's Hospital in Cardiff where she was put in intensive care for four days and put on oxygen.

Chloe said she was told that the speed of Harper's deterioration could be linked to the fact that she was born eight weeks early.

Now family and friends have set up a fundraiser to support the hospital and its staff which treated little Harper.