I can't clap my hands or even do dishes due to rare skin condition

Mum raising awareness of scleroderma

- NEIL SHAW

A MUM has revealed she can't clap her hands, press buttons or even do the dishes because of a rare condition.

Claire Leathem noticed her hands were getting more and more numb until one day she found she couldn't even press buzzers on school intercom systems.

But it wasn't until the mum-of-two went to the jewellers to get her rings resized that she realised something was seriously wrong.

"My body was heavy and sore, and my hands and feet were always freezing cold," said the music teacher from Co Down.

"My hands were swollen all the time, but I was putting it down to Raynaud's, which my mother has. It's a condition that causes the small blood vessels in a person's hands and feet to suffer an extreme reaction to the cold.