AS Poppy Campbell chats happily to her mother Sarah, she is like any happy-go-lucky six-year-old.

But until just a few months ago, the 28-year-old could count on one hand the number of times her daughter had spoken.

Poppy suffers from a form of mutism, which means she has a phobia of anyone hearing her voice – even her parents.

It took almost four years for her to pluck up the courage to say, “Mummy, I love you” – but then she fell silent again for a year.

When she started school last year, she had no voice at all. Even when she cried, she made no sound.

Poppy’s only way of communicating was through eye movements and facial expressions.

But just months after starting a speech and language therapy programme that was expected to last seven years, the primary two pupil has finally found her voice.

The youngster has even been elected class representative on the school’s pupil council – after standing up before 28 classmates to say why they should choose her.

Proud mother, Sarah, a hairdresser from Inverness, said: “Words can’t describe how I feel. The little girl who started school with no voice is now the voice for her whole class. She’s just amazing. I can’t begin to express what she has gone through to get to where she is now.

“She didn’t talk at all. There was no sound, just complete silence. Even her crying was silent.

“Now you can sit and talk to her all day, and she will talk to you.”

The moment Poppy told her she loved her for the first time, however, is one the mother-of-three will always cherish the most.