Ashley: the little girl who will never grow up

THE parents of a nine-year-old girl who cannot walk or talk because of a rare brain condition have revealed how they got medical intervention to keep her child-sized and give her a better life.

The youngster, named only as Ashley, suffers from static encephalopathy and is called “Pillow Angel” by her mother and father because she stays wherever they place her, usually on a pillow.

But three years ago, fearing that she would one day become too big to lift or move easily, they took the highly unusual decision to keep her small with a treatment known as growth attenuation.