Lying in a hospital bed, Jean Lambert gave her premature baby daughter a quick, loving cuddle before she was whisked away by doctors.

With a retained placenta herself, the new mum had to wait an agonising four or five hours 

And as soon as she did, she was faced with the devastating sight of her precious child hooked up to machines in intensive care.

So when she and her husband Michael spotted a small ‘bruise’ on the right side of the youngster’s forehead, it was the least of their worries.

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“We didn’t think much of it,” Jean told Mirror Online.

But over the next few weeks, as Chloe’s condition improved, the mark grew rapidly “like a strawberry” and took on a vivid red colour.

As it turned out, it was actually a birthmark.

And in following months, it grew more and more each day, eventually “weighing down” Chloe’s eye and becoming ulcerated.

Strangers would stare at the little girl in the street, while Jean and Michael had to be careful not to bang the area in case it bled.

“If it started to bleed, it would continue to bleed,” said Jean, from Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire. “We had to be careful not to knock it.”

Told there were no treatment options available and the mark would likely disappear someday on its own, the couple didn’t know what to do.

But fast-forward to today and their lives – and Chloe’s – have completely changed, after she was accepted on to a trial for a new treatment.

Now aged nine, the brave youngster, who has been left with just a small scar, proudly pins her hair back instead of insisting on a fringe.

And she happily tells her pals: “I’m a birthmark baby.”

“Chloe’s so proud,” said Jean.

“As she looks back at photos [of her birthmark] she’ll ask about it. If people ask questions she’s very quick to say, ‘I had a birthmark’.”

The little girl was born eight weeks early in August 2009.

“I had a very easy, straightforward pregnancy, everything went fine. I was getting up for work the morning my waters broke,” Jean said.

“She arrived very quickly at 32 weeks. It was a normal birth, gas and air. They tried to stop the birth, but there was no stopping it!”

Doctors let the new mum have a quick cuddle before she was treated for a retained placenta and Chloe was raced to intensive care.

“It was four or five hours before I could actually see her,” Jean recalled.

“That was awful.”

It was around a week later that doctors told her and Michael that the ‘bruise’ on their daughter’s forehead was actually a strawberry birthmark.

The couple were told it would soon start to change colour and grow.

“The second week, we could really tell what they meant by the birthmark. It had turned a very vivid red,” said Jean.

By the time Chloe was allowed home from hospital, several weeks after her birth, the mark had started to “grow like a strawberry”.

“We’d pre-warned people about her birthmark and sent photos. They were surprised – more so by how small she was,” said her mum.

“We were very much aware the birthmark was growing each day.”

A dermatologist said Chloe’s birthmark would “eventually go away”, but strangers were already starting to stare at her in the street.

“She would be having people standing there, looking at her,” said Jean.

“By December, she started to get a little scab on the birthmark itself.

“We didn’t know what to do.”

Before long, the birthmark had grown to the size of a clenched fist.

“The scab on it was just bigger than a 50p piece,” she added.

One day, as Chloe’s parents removed some clothing from her, the scab also came off, leaving behind an “infected, pussy” area.

They returned to the hospital – where their luck changed.

“A passing doctor saw Chloe and interrupted our appointment to tell us of a ‘new’ treatment being trialled at Great Ormond Street Hospital [GOSH]” said Jean.

The family were told the little girl would be a “prime candidate” for referral. And just weeks later, they were at the London hospital.

In subsequent weeks and months, Chloe’s birthmark was treated with propranolol – which is traditionally used to treat high blood pressure.

The medicine, although not suitable for all birthmarks, or ‘haemangiomas’, can reduce the amount of blood flowing through them, GOSH says.

This can reduce the marks’ colour and make them softer, while the treatment can also limit the growth of cells, making the marks shrink.

“It speeds up the shrinking process,” Jean explained.

She added: “Chloe was on the treatment for a year.

“At its biggest, her birthmark was really starting to weigh down her eye.

“It almost looked like a lazy eye all the time. We’d be sat on the Tube and people would just stare. The young kids would want to touch it.

She added: “Once they ascertained it wasn’t growing anymore, they took us off the medication.”

Over the next few years, Chloe had annual checkups.

Eventually, she underwent three cosmetic surgeries which took her birthmark from a “circle” to an “egg” shape, then to a “slither”.

“We were ecstatic with the results,” said her mum.

“How the scar is now, it’s like she’s just had an accident.

“But banging her head is exceptionally painful for her.”

When she was younger, Chloe would ask her parents to cut in a fringe so it would cover her birthmark. Sometimes, she’d wear a hat.

“She was starting to become a bit more conscious,” said Jean.

“We’d try to tell her it’s unique, it’s what makes you special.

But today, the little girl is “so proud” of her birthmark story.

“She likes to pin her hair back. She’s proud of her scar now. It shows the journey that she’s been on,” added her mum.

Chloe, her parents and her little brother, Thomas, have been supported in their journey by the UK-based Birthmark Support Group.

Jean described the organisation – which was set up by parents of children with vascular birthmarks – as an “absolute Godsend”.

“It’s for any type of birthmark, it doesn’t have to be a strawberry birthmark. There are so many different types,” she said.

“[It’s great] just to be able to contact other parents or get some advice.”

She added: “Being a first-time mum this was both the hardest and most lonely time of my life, or at least it could have been if it wasn’t for the help and support of the Birthmark Support Group.

“We were soon put into contact with this group while Chloe was still young and for the first time we were able to share and compare stories with other parents and children and suddenly the world did not feel so lonely.”

This year, the organisation has been given one charity place for the London Marathon – and Jean has been chosen as the runner.

“I am overwhelmed and honoured,” she said.

Determined to “give back” the support the group gave her family, she has set up a fundraising page to raise money ahead of the April 2019 event.