Mum’s mission for Skye
DOCTORS have told the mother of a four-year-old girl nothing that can be done to cure her daughter from a rare genetic condition.
Lynne Dunn’s daughter Skye was diagnosed with tuberous sclerosis after suffering her first seizure at just four months old.
The condition – said to affect just one in 6,000 children – causes benign tumours to develop in different parts of the body, which can cause epilepsy, autism and learning difficulties.
Skye suffers from up to eight seizures a day and has epilepsy, possible autism and growths on her brain.
Her mum believes that a lack of information on the disease is preventing researchers from finding a cure.
She said: “Skye has had a really hard time of it.
“She takes 15 different medications every day. The doctors said she would never walk but she took her first steps at 14 months, which was amazing, but she doesn’t speak. They think it’s down to possible autism.
“She has between one and eight seizures a day as she has refractory epilepsy, which means her body resists medication.
“The doctors can’t do anything to help apart from giving her medication to try to control the seizures because they are unable to carry out surgery on her.”
As well as the visible sign of the illness, Skye suffers from growths in her brain and spends a l ot of time i n hospital, although the full extent of her illness won’t be noticeable until she grows and develops.
Her learning disability means that she has tantrums that are “off the scale”, self harms and only sleeps a few hours a night.
Along with her husband, Kevyn, Lynne, 37, is a full-time carer to Skye, while also looking after her 10-month-old son Carson.
In the four years since Skye’s diagnosis, the family have encountered many people who haven’t heard of the disease, including family members and specialists.
Lynne added: “The Tuberous Sclerosis Association receives no funding. Every penny they make comes from donations, so we decided to start fundraising.
“We set a target of £1,000 and have reached it within a couple of days.
“Myself and Skye’s two auns Angela Logan and Karen Robinson have worked endlessly collecting donations and contacting companies.
“We are having a charity Christmas fete on Saturday December 3 at Penilee community centre.
“We want to raise as much as possible and make this condition more well known.
“Skye is my hero, the bravest person I know and we hope and pray one day a cure will be found.”
To donate to Skye’s Tuberous Sclerosis page visit www.justgiving.com/fundraising/SkyeDunn .