Penny Jackson got the shock of her life when she found out she had scurvy.
She says she was tested when a wound on her leg took seven months to heal.
"You don't expect to have it now, do you, in the 21st century? It's something that was around back in the First Fleet days. It's quite a surprise."
It's a disease which conjures up images of old-world sailors on long voyages.
They were susceptible because they didn't have access to fresh fruit and vegetables, which provide essential vitamin C.
But researchers say scurvy is back.
The Westmead Institute's Professor Jenny Gunton discovered a spate of cases of the disease amongst a group of diabetes patients in Sydney.
She says people with diabetes may be particularly at risk because they often reduce their fruit intake to avoid high blood sugar.
Professor Gunton says symptoms include wounds that take a long time to heal.
"You get easy bruising under the skin so you may have a lot of bruises. Your gums bleed when you brush your teeth. If it goes further than that your teeth can start to fall out, you get increased risk of fractures, the muscles become weak, and back in the 18th century, sailors used to die."
The advice for avoiding scurvy is the same as it is for keeping a generally healthy diet, including eating plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables.
And Professor Gunton says some traditional diets may fare better than others.
"Vietnamese and Thai foods as examples tend to have the vegetables still crunchy, they use a lot of lime juice, so those would tend to be a little bit better. The older English Anglo-Saxon culture of cooking the vegetables until they're defeated, would make you more susceptible."
She says it's important not to overcook vegetables, which takes out some of the nutrients.
"The fresher the better. And when you're cooking vegetables it should still have a bite, it should still have a crunch to it and if it doesn't you've probably cooked it too much."
