Lisa and Darren Senior felt so lucky with their three perfect children. All born healthy and developed normally until a few unusual symptoms began to rear their heads causing alarm bells to ring.
Callum, 14, Jack, 13, and Maycee, 4, have all been diagnosed with a rare degenerative mitochondrial disease that is unknowingly passed down from the mother reports The Mirror.
This disease starves nearly every cell in the body of energy which affects mobility, sight, memory and speech and will eventually be the cause of the death.
There is no sure for the disease and sufferers are not expected to live beyond 17 so the three Senior children are living with DNA time bombs.
Only four years ago there were no signs of illness but now Callum is wheelchair bound, and Jack uses one too, and may soon be fed by a tube.
Little Maycee, although still so young, is already showing signs of the disease with poor concentration and poor balance.
Lisa, 34, says: “I used to feel particularly lucky – two beautiful sons followed by a gorgeous daughter.
“Darren and I thought we had the perfect family. None of us had any health issues.
“To find out our family is going to be destroyed. That we are going to eventually lose not just one child but all three… The diagnosis was a bombshell.”
What started out as Callum appearing “clumsy” led to the diagnoses that would change their lives, but discovering not one but all three children were afflicted was devastating.
Lisa says: “The doctors have told us they will not make it through their late teens. There is nothing they can do – no medication that will halt it.
“Although there is scientific research going on, we are apparently years from any sort of cure.
“The disease will just progress to their death. Recently Callum has begun to have memory difficulties – he can watch a programme on TV and minutes later have no recollection of it.
“It’s heartbreaking to see him decline so fast. We feel so helpless.”
Although Lisa was unaware that she was a carrier, she feels guilt that her children have this disease because of her. It is likely that any children she has will also be affected.
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