When 21-year-old apprentice Jacob Blackwell sat down for Easter Sunday dinner with his mum Chelsea, neither of them realised it would be the last time they'd physically speak for months.
Within days, Jacob would be fighting for his life - struck down by a rare and potentially fatal strain of meningococcal disease, serogroup B.
'When he left he said he was quite tired,' Chelsea told FEMAIL.
'So I said to him "go home and have a bit of a rest" and I never gave it too much thought.'
What Jacob was actually battling was far more sinister - and it progressed quickly.
By the next day, he was alone at his home in Maitland, NSW, grappling with a strange wave of 'flu-like' symptoms, far worse than anything he'd experienced before.
There was also no tell-tale rash, the most well-known sign of meningococcal disease.
Instead, Jacob felt like his whole body ached and experienced what he can now only explain as 'chronic pain'.
Over the next few days he was in agony, he was delirious, and he was disoriented. Resorting to Google, he searched for his symptoms online to try and diagnose his mystery illness.
But by then, it was already too late.
Jacob and Chelsea were very close. They spoke or messaged each other every day. So when she didn't hear from her son for several days and noticed his phone was off, she knew something was wrong.
'On the Wednesday night, he was going to come home and watch the soccer. But he never came home,' she said.
'He would always send me a good night text, so something just wasn't sitting right with me. I thought something must have happened.'
Four whole days after their dinner, Chelsea decided to jump in her car and make the hour-long drive from her home in Lake Munmorah, NSW, to Jacob's unit in Maitland to see what was going on.
What she found was every parent's worst nightmare.
Jacob was lying unconscious on the floor. He was completely unresponsive, his body was severely swollen, and one of his eyes was bulging from its socket.
She immediately called Triple-0 and paramedics arrived within four minutes. However his condition was so grave, they initially suspected he'd been the victim of a brutal assault.
They even seized his phone for evidence. But as they scrolled through his recent activity, they found his final, desperate google search: 'how to treat a migraine', and realised it might not be as black and white as they first thought.
It also painted a heartbreaking picture - Jacob had known he was unwell, but hadn't realised just how sick he was.
Because his symptoms didn't match the 'classic' signs of meningococcal disease, it took 24 hours before doctors realised what Jacob was actually fighting.
'There was no rash on his body, so I didn't look at him and think, "oh my gosh, this must be meningococcal",' Chelsea said.
By then, the bacteria had already caused catastrophic damage to his body and his brain; doctors warned the family to prepare for the worst.
Jacob was rushed into intensive care, where he would remain in an induced coma for over two weeks, completely paralysed, unable to move, speak or communicate.
'There's no other way of putting it, than absolutely heartbreaking and terrifying,' Chelsea said of seeing her son in that state.
'We had no idea what the future looked like. When it comes to the brain, they just don't know, so they couldn't give us too much information.'
Meningococcal disease is rare, but is a serious illness that usually causes meningitis (inflammation of the lining of the brain and spinal cord) and/or sepsis.
People with the disease can become extremely unwell very quickly, like Jacob, and five to ten per cent of patients with the disease die, despite rapid treatment.
Even more concerning is that between five and 25 per cent of people in the community carry meningococcal bacteria at the back of the nose and throat without showing any illness or symptoms.
As well as a typical red, spotted rash, symptoms of can be non-specific which means that it can be hard to identify. They may include anything from sudden onset of fever, joint pain, nausea and vomiting, headaches and sensitivity to bright lights.
From the age of six weeks old, Australians can be vaccinated for free against strains A, B, C, W and Y of the disease which significantly reduces the risk. However, vaccines are not 100 per cent effective and do not protect against all strains of the bacteria.
Jacob spent 22 days in ICU and a total of 230 days in hospital fighting the deadly disease with everything he had. But life is far from how it was before.
'I couldn't speak, and although I consciously knew what was happening, I couldn't get any words out,' Jacob said of how scared and vulnerable he felt at that time.
He described the first three days out of his coma as the hardest.
'I was just crying non-stop, and there was a moment of like, okay this is not a dream, this is real,' he said.
Once he was fully conscious again, the trauma of his coma left him with PTSD, and he continues to manage physical and emotional scars of the trauma every day.
Now 23, Jacob is still recovering, supported full-time by Chelsea, who has become his carer, therapist, and advocate.
He walks with the aid of frame, is easily fatigued and has significant difficulty speaking but he has come a long way in his rehabilitation - impressing medical professionals.
'From the moment I found him, it's just been terror up until probably six months ago, and we started to realise that he's actually doing really well,' Chelsea said.
This month Jacob returned to one of his great loves, swimming, in a symbolic milestone on his recovery journey.
He was joined in the pool by Olympic gold medalist Libby Trickett and Paralympian Jay Dohnt, a fellow meningococcal survivor, who helped guide Jacob back into the water. However, Jacob’s recovery still has a long way to go.
Jacob’s case is terrifying because it’s not unique. Meningococcal disease is rare, but it is fast, brutal and often misdiagnosed.
Already this year, 56 cases have been reported across Australia with winter as peak season for transmission.
Worryingly, new research shows nearly half (48 per cent) of young adults aged 18-24 can't name even one symptom of meningococcal disease.
Even more concerning is one in four parents of children aged zero-to-four are also unable to identify a single sign.
'People think it's a rash,' Chelsea said. 'I really want to get out there that every case is so different.'
'If you're worried about any of your friends or family, urge them to get themselves check out.'