Clever Kate shines brightest

SHE may be confined to a wheelchair, have limited speech and hearing and severe life-threatening respiratory problems.

But four-year-old Kate Crowley will be top of the class when she starts primary school next year.

Her parents John and Maria have always believed that their daughter, who suffers from a barely-known disease which affects just one in every 100,000 babies worldwide, had an intellect way beyond her years.

John said: “We’ve always known that Kate has a personality and intelligence of someone much older than her four years. She’s extremely bright and can work her way round an iPhone or iPad better than any adult I know.

“But she’s done better than anyone expected in IQ tests which were done in America recently where she was being treated. She was tested on things like numbers, colours and shapes and she did very well. Her results were off the chart and put her in the highly-intelligent level, and that fills us with great hope for when she starts school.”

The news is a boost to the family, who also have a perfectly-healthy one-year-old son, Jack, whose lives are consumed with trying to find an effective treatment for their daughter.

The primary prognosis for most children who suffer rhizomelic chondordysplasia punctata dysplasia is death at birth or within the first two years of life, primarily as a result of respiratory failure.

To date, the oldest any sufferer anywhere in the world has ever lived to is just 14.

Kate’s most life-threatening symptom is the severe respiratory issues she suffers from as a result of limited lung development, brought on by her scoliosis.

But within her tiny frame lies a remarkable fighting spirit that has stunned the medical world and helped her come through five major surgical operations in her short life, as well as surviving two severe bouts of pneumonia and life-saving treatment for a collapsed lung.