Gruelling diet a tough ask for 6-year-old PKU sufferer Maria

Maria Gilroy’s diet prevents her consuming foods most of us take for granted — meat, fish, poultry, cheese, milk, bread, flour, rice, pasta, yoghurt, chocolate.

It’s a tough ask for a six-year-old, but essential to stave off the risk of severe brain damage that her rare metabolic disease poses.

Tralee-based Maria is one of 743 adults and children in Ireland with PKU.