One in 50 children with Down syndrome has arthritis

Hearing her daughter cry at night from some unidentified pain nearly broke Catherine Looney’s heart.

Ava, 12, who has Down syndrome, had undiagnosed juvenile arthritis, despite visiting a succession of specialists over a three-and-a-half-year period.

Catherine, from Donoughmore, Co Cork, said the common consensus among medics was that the problem lay with Ava’s hips.