Mother's agony as daughter lost ability to walk and talk overnight

A SINGLE mother felt like she “lost (her) daughter overnight” after her child developed a rare condition which keeps her locked in her body and prevents her from walking and talking.

- By AISLING GRACE PA Real Life

Poppy Allard, now 10, from near Folkestone, was born a seemingly healthy baby and was babbling and picking things up as expected, when, at around 15 months, her behaviour suddenly changed.

Her mother, 41-year-old nurse Victoria, said “alarm bells rang out” when Poppy stopped making noises, answering to her name, and lost the use of her hands.

Poppy was referred to Clinical Genetics at Guy’s Hospital in London, where at the age of two she was diagnosed with Rett Syndrome, an incurable disease which impacts brain development that affects around one in 10,000 girls born each year, according to the NHS.

Rett Syndrome affects girls almost exclusively and results in severe mental and physical disability, but patients still retain their cognitive abilities, leaving them trapped in a body which will not do what the brain tells it to.

Mother Victoria, whose second child Daisy is 13, told PA Real Life: “Poppy was about a year old and everything up until that point seemed absolutely normal.

“All her milestones were coming up as you would expect ... I didn’t really think for a minute that there was any problem.

“One minute, I had this really smiley, babbling baby, and then the next day, it was like she was gone.”

Poppy was born in 2014, and at first she seemed to be a healthy baby.

“She sat up, she was very engaging, she started to smile and babble,” Victoria said.

“She was using her hands to play with toys and pick tiny things up that she found in the carpet that she was not supposed to.