Finding a cure

INCREDIBLE MEDICINE: DR WESTON’S CASEBOOK

BBC2, 9pm FRAGRANCE writer and beauty blogger Louise Woollam lost her sense of smell suddenly after a fairly unremarkable cold. Then it started to return – but in a strange way.

Everything smelt bad, like burning or rotting food, which meant that everything tasted awful too. “I thought I was going a bit mad,” says Louise. “My mum made a roast dinner and it tasted like she’d just poured sewage over it. I can see why people think it’s funny but they don’t understand what an impact this can have.”

Louise’s condition, called parosmia, is just one of several extraordinary cases looked at by surgeon Dr Weston in this series.

She says: “We can learn astonishing things about people through rare cases.

“Finding out what makes them unique can help find the cures of the future.”

In tonight’s episode, there is also a man who has super-strong bones that are denser than granite. And a woman with two wombs, who had twins – one born in each womb.

We also meet 10-year-old Ceniya, who has sickle cell disease. This should mean she is in a lot of pain.

But Ceniya, who literally cannot stop bouncing around doing gymnastics or dancing or swimming, is displaying no symptoms. How can she have a life-threatening illness with no symptoms? Well, there are some answers for us, and it could lead to a brand new treatment.

And 14-year-old Leah has a rare condition that means her left arm won’t stop growing at an abnormal rate. Why doesn’t this affect any other part of her body?

Scientists in Cambridge might have found the answer.